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OBITUARY ADDRESSES 



OCCASION OF THE DEATH 



Hon. H. N. M'ALLISTER, 



OF CENTRE COUNTY, PA., 



May stk ami 6th. 1873, 



TO WHICH IS ADDED A BIOCiRAPHY OF DFXEASED. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
INQUIRER BOOK AND JOB PRINT, 304 CHESTNUT STREET. 

1873- 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 

MONDAY, MAY 5, 1873. 

DEATH OF MR. M'ALLISTER. 

The President. It is with feelings of profound re- 
gret that the Chair announces the death, this morning, 
at hah-past four o'clock, of our late esteemed asso- 
ciate, Hugh Nelson M'Allister. 

Mr. CuKTTN. Mr. President: In the presence of 
such a public loss and private sorrow, I move that this 
Convention do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to, and at ten o'clock and 
twenty-three minutes, A. M.,the Convention adjourned 
until to-morrow at ten o'clock. 

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1873. 

The Convention met at ten o'clock, A. M., Hon. 
Wm. M. Meredith, President, in the chair. 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



PRAYER. 
Rev. James \V. Ccrrv offered the following- prayer: 

Oh Lord, our Maker, we come into Thy pre- 
sence this morning' with hearts of sadness, when we 
remember that death has once more entered our Con- 
vention and laid his hand upon one of our members. 
We recognize this dispensation of Thy providence, Oh 
Lord, as a lesson teaching us that we must die. 
Teach us that we are dying mortals, and shortly 
we too shall be called upon to exchange time tor 
eternity. While our hearts are sad, we rejoice to 
know that he upon whom the hand of death has been 
laid was a man that feared God. While in the world 
his great object was to please Thee. During his pil- 
grimage in this life his great object was to glorify God 
that he might enjoy Him forever. We are glad that 
Thou hast said in Thy word to those who are troubled 
and cast down: "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye 
Ijelieve in God; Ijelieve also in Me; for in my Father's 
house are many mansions; if it were not so I would 
have told )ou ; I go to prepare a place for )'ou, that 
where I am there ye may be also." This hope cheers 
our hearts amid the gloom of death. This hope con- 
soles us when we remember that Jesus entered 
the grave in mortal flesh and dwelt among the dead, 
and in the morning of the third da)' rose again and 



i 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 



ascended unto the Tather, where He ever Hvetli to 
make intercession for iis. W'e are thankful to Thee 
this morning, Ahnighty God, that we do not mourn as 
those without hope; and we rejoice that through Jesus 
Christ we can enter into Heaven and immortal joys. 
We earnestly invoke Thy blessing upon the bereaved 
wife, and upon the children. Oh, be a father to the 
fatherless and a husband to the widow. Do Thou 
grant. Oh leather, to draw them 1))' the cords of 
Thy love; may they look unto Jesus, the fountain 
ot all happiness, so live in the world, and so enjoy 
the rich benedictions of Divine grace, that when they 
too shall be called upon to pass the way of all the 
earth, they may meet the parent who has gone before, 
and with him enter into the rest prepared for the 
"People of God." 

We ask Thy blessing this morning upon our as- 
sembling together. We pray for Thy blessing upon 
the exercises of this day. Be with us, Oh Lord, and 
teach us all to fear Thee and to work righteousness; 
and finally, when we have done and suffered Th\- 
righteous will here upon the earth, bring us all to en- 
joy Thy unclouded presence in Thine everlasting- 
kingdom; for Christ's sake. Amen. 

Mr. CuRTix. Mr. President: I offer the following 
resolutions: 



OBITUAR y ADR ESSES. 



Resolved, riiat with the most sincere feehns^^; of un- 
feigned sorrow we learn of the death of Hon. Hugh 
Nelson M'AUister, a member of this Convention, who 
enjoyed the highest measure ot respect tor his learn- 
ing and abilit)', and esteem for his virtues. 

Resolved, Ihat his death deprives this Convention 
of one of its most enlightened and industrious mem- 
bers, the Commonwealth of one of her most public 
spirited and useful citizens, the community in which 
he lived of a man whose indomitable energy, inflexible 
integrity, and spotless moral character attracted to 
him the confidence and affection of all who knew him' 
and his faniily of a kind and devoted husband and 
father. 

Resolved, That we do most heartil)' offer to the 
members of his bereaved family the homage of our 
sympathy and condolence in this the time of its deep 
distress. 

Resolved, That in respect for the memor\- of our 
departed colleague the President is requested to ap- 
point a committee of delegates to attend his funeral 
at Bellefonte on Thursday next. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to transmit a 

copy of these resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

The resolutions were ordered to a second reading; 

and the first resolution was read the second time, as 

follows: 



HON. HUGH NELSON APALLISTER. 



Resolved, That with the most sincere feeHnos of 
unfeioned sorrow we learn of the death of Hon. H. 
Nelson M'Allister, a member of this Convention, who 
enjoyed the highest measure of respect for his learn- 
ing and ability, and esteem for his virtues. 

Mr. A. G. CuRTiN, of Centre County. Mr. Presi- 
dent: When we listened a few days since to the elo- 
quent and just eulogies on the character and public 
service of William Hopkins, we did not suppose that 
in the wisdom of a mysterious Providence, the Great 
Destroyer would soon strike down another member 
of this body, a man quite his peer in all respects. In 
many of their characteristics — in their earnestness of 
purpose, in their integrity and their pure Christian 
character — William Hopkins and Hugh Nelson 
M'Allister were wonderfully alike; and without any 
disrespect to the living, or want of knowledge of their 
learning or usefulness, it can be truly said that no two 
men could have been taken from this enlightened 
body whose services were of more importance to its 
deliberations or whose loss will be more heavily felt 
in the communities in which they lived. 

Mr. M'Allister, our colleague, was born in Juniata 
County, Pennsylvania, (then Mifflin County,) on the 
twenty-eighth of June, 1809, so that he was approach- 
ing his sixty-fourth year when he died. He was born 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



upon the farm still in the possession of the family, 
upon which his grandfather settled, who was the 
second white man to settle in the Valley of Lost 
Creek, in that county. Spending his early life in 
ordinary labor on the farm, he received at a neighbor- 
ing academy the preparatory education necessary for 
his admission into college, and at the proper time he 
entered Jefferson Colleore, at Canonsbure, Pa., where 
he grraduated with distinoruished honors. On his 
return to his home he entered, as a student of law, 
the office of William W. Potter, then the leader 
of the bar in the central portion of Pennsylvania. 
He completed his law^ studies in the law school at 
Dickinson College, under the charge of the late Judge 
Read. 

When he had been admitted to the bar he returned 
to Bellefonte and commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession. He had not to wait long for practice. He 
entered upon a lucrative business almost immediately 
on his coming to the bar, and from the day of his 
admission down to the time of his death he continued 
to enjoy a large and remunerative practice, the con- 
fidence of his clients and the respect and affection of 
all the people of that part of Pennsylvania who ad- 
mired purity of character, integrity, energy and a 
freedom from all the arts and appliances which in 
modern times have detracted so much from the char- 



HON. HUGH NELSON ArALLISTER. ii 

acter of public men and defiled the politics of our 
time. 

At the time of Mr. M'Allister's admission to the bar, 
Judge Thomas Burnside was upon the bench in the 
Fourth District. He was afterwards removed to a 
seat on the bench of the Supreme Court; and a dis- 
tinguished and learned gentleman of this Convention, 
who has attained high eminence in his profession, be- 
came the judge of the district; and for ten years, the 
ten years of the beginning of his professional life, tan 
years of constant progress and of growing profes- 
sional confidence, and of expanding views, as he 
grew to the full proportions of his distinguished man- 
hood, he practiced before his Honor, Judge Woodward, 
who was then the President Judge of the Common 
Pleas of his district. 

Mr. M'Allister never held a public station until he 
appeared in this Convention. He had a distaste for 
public life. He never would condescend to the means 
by which public station is too often acquired. His 
was a life of labor and industry, and with the earnest- 
ness of purpose which attached itself to his profes- 
sional character, which incorporated him with the rights 
and interests of his clients, which led him to intensify 
all the feelings of his nature on any public work in 
which he was engaged, in any private enterprise, or en- 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



largecl charity and hospitality, Mr. M'Alhster could 
not from his nature be a politician. 

But so great was his influence in the part of the 
State in which he lived, so entirely had he engrossed 
the confidence of the people in that community, that 
he could, at frequent periods of his life, have held 
public station if he had been willing. Over and over 
atrain he was solicited to ask for office from the people, 
and more than once his friends united in importunities 
to him to permit himself to be placed in judicial sta- 
tions. Once, at least, during his professional life he 
refused to be the President Judge of the Common 
Pleas of his district, and I know full well that there is 
upon this floor a gentleman who would have been only 
too glad if his friends had presented his name for ap- 
pointment. I hesitate to say that the members of this 
Convention knew little of this man until he appeared 
amongst them, as a member of the body. I know 
equally well, that it would be a more fruitful subject 
and more acceptable if I could speak of public works, 
of high official position, and the discharge of import- 
ant political duties. I have no such eulogy on my 
dead friend. I can only speak of him as a true man, 
an honest, upright citizen, discharging all the private 
and relative duties to the public, to himself and to his 
family. 1 can speak only of his integrity, of his ear- 
nestness, of his purity; aye, more, I can speak of his 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 13 



his devoted Christian character. Mr. M'Allister was a 
true behever in the Christian faith, and for many years 
of his Hfe devoted much of his time to the affairs and 
welfare of the church to which he belonged and of 
which he w^as a ruling elder. It is a consolation to the 
surviving members of this Convention who were his 
friends to know that his accounts were settled, his 
peace was made with his God; and while we regret 
that a long life of suffering and ill-health has closed, 
and the useful and the good man has gone, we have 
the consolation of knowing that there is no fear of his 
future rest and peace and happiness. 

Many years since, when worn down by the constant 
labors of his professional life, Mr. M'Allister conceived 
the idea that, in harmony with the tastes of first pur- 
suits, his health might be restored by turning his at- 
tention to agriculture. He purchased a farm in the 
neighborhood of Bellefonte, where he lived, and turned 
his attention to skilled agriculture. He made that 
farm the model for all the people of the neighborhood. 
He introduced the most approved scientific culture of 
the day, the artificial stimulus necessary to restore ex- 
hausted land, and the most improved implements of 
modern farming; and while he made it the most per- 
fect model farm in the State, he improved the arts of 
agriculture in all the surrounding country, where 
there is a noticeable improvement in the manner of 



14 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

cultivation and increase in production, learned from 
the experience and experiments and skill of the 
lawyer-farmer who made agriculture merely the col- 
lateral of his professional life. 

When Mr. M'Allister, with his zeal and his industry, 
became connected with practical agriculture, his views 
enlarged and he conceived the idea of establishinof in 
Pennsylvania a school where farming would be taught 
as the chief part of a complete education, and to him 
belongs the credit in a large measure of the estab- 
lishment of, first, the Farm School of Pennsylvania, 
and now the Agricultural College; and while other 
men faltered and hesitated under disappointment, 
when the school would have failed over and over 
again, the energy and persistence of this man kept it 
alive, and before his death he had the satisfaction of 
seeing it in successful operation ; and there is not to- 
day, in all this great Commonwealth, a more success- 
ful educational institution than the Farmer's College 
of Pennsylvania. 

I speak of these things as the public works of the 
man. I speak of his character as a loss to the neigh- 
borhood in which he had lived and labored. I speak 
of his Christian character and belief as an example 
to all men who are to follow him. This, Mr. Presi- 
dent, is a public occasion, and our colleague died in a 
public place. It is fit that proper expressions ot s\'m- 



BON. HUGH XELSON MCALLISTER. 



pathy and regret should be made in this body, but it 
is, perhaps, no place and this no occasion to Intrude 
private sorrow; and yet at the risk of an impropriety, 
I shall be permitted to speak of him as my friend for 
man)' years. I was not his equal at the bar, but his 
rival, and in all the struggles of an active professional 
life, and amid the antaofonisms which orow out of the 
trials which constantly occurred, in which we were 
opposing counsel, rarely indeeci was our constant 
friendship interrupted. With an inclination to attract 
men and a modicum of ambition for public life, I ad- 
mired in this man just the opposite qualities. To 
have made himself Governor or President, our col- 
league, who is dead, would have never turned from 
his intensity of purpose, his settled convictions of 
public or private duty, or his well settled religious 
belief. In that respect I never knew his equal; and 
while it could not be said that he had the affection 
which more attractive and magnetic qualities draw to 
the public man, he had the homage of the conviction 
in everybody who knew him, that he was a man of 
sterling integrity, of constant labor, of iron fidelity, 
and of a will which, fixed in a direction he believed 
right and true, never failed to carry with them the 
accomplishment of his purpose. 

And this Convention will pardon me, even here, 
for the expression of my individual sorrow at the 



1 6 OBJ 1 UAR V ADDRESSES. 

death of such a man; my heart goes out in sympathy 
to my neighborhood, in which he Hved, where the 
people are in tears to-day, because they have lost 
their foremost and best citizen, and we are united in 
sorrow over his dead body. 

Between humanity living and humanity dead there 
is but a moment. The tabernacle which held the 
spirit, made by God's own hand in His image, is no 
more; and the spirit has gone to settle a final account. 
Eulogy can be of no consequence. When the good 
man dies a void is felt in society where he lived; and 
we marvel at the mysterious Providence which takes 
away the useful, the charitable and the good. It is 
no time for praise: it is the time to make solemn 
resolutions to imitate the example which they leave 
behind them; and the good works and the purity of 
character, the fidelity and the integrity are benefac- 
tions the good man leaves to those who are to follow 
him. Treading in the examples thus set it is tor those 
who live, when the Great Destroyer comes to them, 
to leave behind such a character, and such works, and 
such a blameless life, that the benefactions they receive 
from those who are gone before may be shed upon 
those who are to follow them. 

Of such a character was this man. He has left us 
a life to imitate, and let us profit by such an example. 
For long as the people live in the Blue Mountains of 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 



Pennsylvania, long- as there shall be a man who loves 
virtue and truth and integrity, there will be a fresh, 
green and beautiful Christian remembrance over the 
grave of Hugh Nelson M'Allister, when he is for- 
g-otten by those who have only enjoyed his acquaint- 
ance for a time, and welcomed him to their councils 
when his health was broken and dissolution fast, alas 
too fast, approaching. 

I am not in a condition to trust myself further. In 
youth, we separate from our friends with regret. At 
the spring-time of life, when all of the future is rose- 
colored, we soon forget the separations which death 
causes. Nature's laws invite us to the enjoyment of 
health and vigorous life. In large communities, where 
you enjoy the friendship of the many, the dropping 
away of a friend to-day, and to-morrow, makes but a 
ripple on the surface of public affairs or social life. 
Of the event we take little note. But when the man 
of the small commimity, of the village in the country, 
goes, all in that community feel the loss, and those 
who live, and enjoy the small circle of intimate friend- 
ship and social relations, feel deeply the wound when 
death strikes down one — but one — if he was a useful 
and just man. I will be pardoned for my emotion by 
those who live in the interior of the vState, when I 
express so much feeling over the grave of H. Nelson 
M'Allister, who was my companion in life, my neigh- 



1 8 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

bor, and, hio-her and more sacred to my memory, he 
was m)' friend. 

Mr. BiGLER. Mr. President: Huoh Nelson M'Al- 
lister is dead. He died May the 5th, 1873, at No. 
1 104 Spruce street. Philadelphia, in the sixty-fourth 
year of his a^re, surrounded by members of his family 
and other friends. His great mind remained clear to 
the end; among its last efforts was to signify his faith 
and trust in the .Saviour. 

He was born and raised in Juniata County, Penn- 
sylvania, but has resided at Bellefonte, Centre County, 
for near forty years. Blessed with fine native abilities, 
and accomplished with a liberal education, he readily 
became a lawyer of note in his adopted home; and 1 
think all who have known him well will agree that he 
was a character in himself, peculiar to himself and that, 
as a whole, that character, so peculiar, was one ap- 
proaching the beauties of perfection. Men of simi- 
lar characteristics are rarely met. His precise like I 
have never seen. In industry, resistless energy, posi- 
tive will, passionate devotion, daimtless courage, large 
benevolence and tender humanity, Hugh N. M'Allister 
seldom, if ever, had an ecjual. 

He was a member of this body, the only office or 
trust he ever held from the people of the State; and 
those who have witnessed his labors as a delegate 



HON. HUGH NELSON AV ALLISTKR. 19 



can form some idea of the part he ])erformed in other 
departments of Hfe. Sincere, earnest and conscien- 
tious, when once he espoused a cause he followed it 
up in season and out of season. Ceaseless vigilance 
in small things as well as great ones, was his habit. 
In his profession he was the same energetic, methodi- 
cal and persistent worker that he showed himself to 
be in this body. 

As a farmer — and he was one of the most learned 
In the State — he displayed these same characteristics 
in a high degree; so also when he performed his part 
as the foremost man, as he uniformly was, in enter- 
prises and improvements to advance his town and 
section of the State. As significant of his energy and 
unselfish devotion, I mention the fact that in the sum- 
mer of 1872 he left his clients, his farm and other 
interests, and went from Bellefonte to St. Louis to 
attend and address an agricultural convention, simply 
because he had taken the inipression that he might 
say something that would be useful to the farmers of 
the west; and he readily became the leading spirit in 
that body, though it contained representatives from 
more than one-third of the States ol the Union. 

But in no other work of his life did the great 
characteristics of H. N. M'Allister appear to so much 
advantage as in the discharge of his Christian duties. 
As an elder in the Presbyterian Church, representing 



OBI TUAR V A DDR ESSES. 



his congregation in presbytery, he was uniformly in 
the lead of the clergy in everything with which it was 
proper for him to deal; he was lull ot suggestion, of 
work and devotion ; so he appeared in the synod, 
in the general assembly, and so also at the great 
meeting that united the old and the new school of the 
Presbyterian Church. Becoming chairman of the 
board of sustentation of the Presbyterian Church, he 
found opened before him a field for unselfish labor and 
charity commensurate, and only commensurate, with 
his enlarged desire to carry forward the w^ork of the 
Pord. The clergy of his denomination throughout 
the State bear willing testimony to the wisdom and 
high ability he displayed in the management of that 
work. He had unequaled ability to induce others to 
give of their means to the work of the church, and he 
possessed in an eminent degree the disposition to give 
abundantly himself. I shall excite criticism from no 
one in his section when I say that the jjrivate charities 
he has bestowed upon the needy, in number and in the 
ao-oreu^ate sum, far exceed those of any other man in 
the interior of the State. 

What a character! Always excitable, at times pas- 
sionate, imperious and relentless, and yet generous, 
benevolent, compassionate and affectionate. As neigh- 
bor, husband and father, I believe his life was faultless. 

How saddenino;- the thouoht, Mr. President, that one 



HON. HUGH NELSON AFALLISTER. 21 

so distinguished for intelligence and conscientious 
concern for the welfare of his country, will never again 
appear in this body. Let us be consoled with the 
belief that our loss is his gain, for "blessed are the 
dead who die in the Lord." 

Mr. Hamilton Alkicks, of Dauphin County. Vir. 
President: I beg leave to add a few words to what has 
been so well said in relation to the public loss which 
has converted the hall of this Convention into the 
house of mourning. I did not reside near Mr. 
M'Allister, although I was born on the adjoining farm 
to that on which he was born, in Jimiata County. I 
knew his manner of living from his youth up. He 
was reared on a farm, as you have been told, and his 
love for agriculture adhered to him till the close of 
his life. It can be said of him truly that he could 
raise two spears of grass where an)- other farmer on 
the same area of ground in Pennsylvania could raise 
one. There was no implement of husbandry, there 
was no plow or harrow, there was no reaper or mower, 
no pitch-fork or any other instrument of modern dis- 
covery, that he did not test himself. He was the 
model Pennsylvania farmer. I thought I knew some- 
thing about agriculture; but I confess I was put to 
shame when I saw his farm, and the products of it. 

You have been told that at an early day he went 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



to jefterson Collei^^e, where he graduated with dis- 
tinguished honors, and you have been informed with 
whom he studied law, Mr. Potter, and whom he suc- 
ceeded in business. He w^as the same emphatic gen- 
tleman at the bar that you found him in this Conven- 
tion. He belonged to the positive school; but he 
was always controlled by right motives. He could 
have been upon the bench, but he declined the posi- 
tion. What can be said of him, can scarcely be said 
with the same degree of truth of any other lawyer in 
Pennsylvania. 

The attorney at the bar and the judge upon the 
bench alike came down to take his counsel; and he 
never failed them. 

He was the motive power in the church, in the 
Agricultural College, and in all benevolent enterprises 
of the day in his section of the State. He was a 
pillar of the Presbyterian Church, to which he be- 
longed, and throughout the whole of that denomina- 
tion of Christians in this broad land he was looked 
to as a burning and shining light. 

It will not be easy for us to supply his place in this 
Convention. You, Mr. President, ij'ave him work 
enough for any ordinary man to do. He was on two 
of the most important committees connected with the 
Convention. He lal)ored there with untiring zeal. I 
believe it was said ot him truly that he never missed 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 



a meeting of a committee; and yet he was not satis- 
fied. He went before other committees, and there, 
with ah the zeal that he could command, he urged the 
adoption of those measures which he thought it would 
be proper to introduce into the fundamental law of 
this Commonwealth. 

You, gentlemen, saw him, before he was stricken 
down, at his seat. You saw that he was impetuous as 
a mountain stream. He was anxious to stir up the 
heart of every member of this Convention to a sense 
of his duty to adopt proper reforms. He was at his 
seat denouncing those frauds which have brought such 
discredit upon our Commonwealth, and he fell beneath 
his labors. He had not the physical power that would 
enable him to do all that he thought it his duty to 
perform. 

I presume, Mr. President, I might say that the 
admonition is to you and to me, and to each gentle- 
man in this Convention: 

" Our hearts 
Like muffled drums are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. " 

Hopkins is gone; the man at my right hand is gone. 
Well may we exclaim: "Of whom shall we seek for 
shelter but of Thee, oh! God, who at our sins art 
justly displeased." 



2 4 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

Mr. W. H. Armstr()N(;, of Lycoming County. Mr. 
President: Once more the Convention stands in the 
immediate presence of death. Another of our num- 
ber has been called from the activities of life and the 
interests which entraged him, to lie silent in the arms 
ol the dread master at whose bidding we all must go. 

My acquaintance with the deceased, though personal 
and friendly, was not intimate. We were not often 
called into close relations, and I knew him far better in 
his reputation than from personal intimacy. For all 
the years of his long and active life he was esteemed 
by those who knew him best, as an upright, earnest 
Christian man. He was distinguished for the zeal of 
his professional fidelity. The character of his mind 
was such that he espoused whatever interest he 
assumed to defend or urge, with an untiring industry 
which pursued his client's interest through its most 
intricate details. No weariness deterred him, no diffi- 
culties obstructed his pursuit which energy could sur- 
mount. The fidelity of his devotion gained him friends 
and clients and success. In this regard his reputation 
extended far beyond the limits ot his county. His 
interest once strongly enlisted in a cause, or in a 
project of public or private importance, engaged him 
for the time almost to the exclusion of other pursuits. 
He was proud of his profession and of his professional 
reputation. His legal discrimination was acute, and 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 25 

his analysis of facts strong- and clear. The integrity 
which so distinguished his life gave him strong hold 
upon the confidence of both the court and jury, and 
was a principal cause ot the success which distin- 
guished his professional career. He was an inde- 
fatigable worker, a safe counsellor, and an ardent 
advocate. 

But he was scarcely less distinguished for his devo- 
tion to agriculture. Possessed of a large and beautiful 
farm adjoining the town of Bellefonte, where he lived, 
he applied himself with characteristic earnestness 
to its improvement. It became a mociel of neatness 
and excellence in all that could embellish or improve 
it. He was among the foremost to adopt and experi- 
ment with any implements that woulci lighten the labor 
of the farm, and equally prompt to test the value of 
whatever offered by way of improved varieties of 
grain or improved modes of culture. His experiments 
w^ere conducted under his own immediate supervision, 
and the results noted with characteristic exactness. It 
is said that many able papers were contributed by him 
to the reports of the National Agricultural Depart- 
ment. With so fond a taste for agricultural pursuits, 
he did not permit it to divert him from his chosen pro- 
fession, and with whatever ardor it was pursued he 
did not suffer the pleasures of the one to interfere 
with the duties of the other. 



- 



zG OBnX'ARY ADDRESSES. 

With tastes thus naturall)' turning to the interests 
of agriculture it is not surprising that he should early 
have become the friend of systematic agricultural 
education. This taste grew upon him in his later 
years and became one of the sources of his purest 
enjoyments. In the development of these inclinations 
he became one of the most devoted friends of the 
Central Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. And 
to him more than to any other person is due the 
establishment of that institution in Centre County. 
He was identified with the project from its earliest 
inception. He was liberal of his time and of his 
means in promoting its interests, and his devotion to 
all that could advance its prosperity became almost a 
passion ot his lite. His interest in it never flagged; 
his efforts in its behalf never faltered, and when in 
the vicissitudes of its fortunes it most needed friends, 
he was most ready to aid it; never despondent when 
its fortunes were adverse, he allowed no prosperity to 
check the carefulness of his guard, nor to betray him 
into any relaxation of his efforts to promote its inte- 
rest. He was, I believe, a director of the institution 
through most, if not all, its history; and no inscription 
could more fitly adorn its walls than one that should 
perpetuate his devotion to its interests. 

He was not ambitious of public positions; he pur- 
sued the even tenor of his life in the practice of the 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 27 

profession he had chosen, and the pursuit of such 
kindred pleasures as best advanced his domestic and 
personal happiness. The first public office he ever 
held was as a member of this Convention. He 
esteemed it to be an honor to be thus chosen, and 
applied himself to its duties with the same all 
engrossing earnestness which characterized his pur- 
suit of whatever strongly engaged his attention. He 
prepared himself by careful and assiduous study to 
discharge his duties here with fidelity to the high trust 
he had assumed. 

My fellow-members will confirm my testimony to 
the unselfish and self-sacrificing devotion with which 
he cast himself with all his energy into the work 
before us. His industry was untiring. The earnest- 
ness of his purpose and the ardor of his temperament 
forbade him to moderate his exertions to the measure 
of his strength. With more confidence in his physi- 
cal endurance than the measure of his years and his 
impaired health would justify, he labored on in the 
intense earnestness of his nature, until the Master 
called him from this scene of his busy and earnest 
and useful life. 

I cannot forbear to further notice his Christian 
character. 

He was a member and an elder in the Presbyterian 
Church for many years, and in all his church relations 



28 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

commanded die confidence and respect ot all who 
knew him. He was liberal as a stiver and earnest as 
a worker. He was a polished stone in the church. 
The crowning glory of his life was his devoted, con- 
sistent, humble walk with God. Such was his repu- 
tation; and it enfolds him like a robe of glory. To 
the vision of his faith this world was not his home. 
It was the field of his labor, the changing scene of 
mintrled joys and sorrows. He lived in the conscious 
triuniph of his faith. His life proclaimed him a Chris- 
tian, and he died in the faith he professed. It was 
the uniform expression of his consistent Christian 
character. 

This sad event is not without its admonition to the 
livin^'-. In the midst of life we are in death. To 
many here, advancing years proclaim the relaxing 
grasp on life. Twice within the short period ot our 
mingling together, we have united our sympathies 
with those who mourn around the open grave of a 
departed colleague. Where next that deadly bow 
may wing its shaft God only knows. May our faith 
be brighter and our lives purer for the admonition 
this bereavement brings. May it teach us, whilst we 
labor to gather prosperity around the State, that, in 
the midst of our activities, our ambitions and our 
cares, to lay up our treasure in Heaven. 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 29 

"This world is poor from shore to shore, 

And like a baseless vision, 
Its lofty domes and brilliant ore, 
Its gems and crowns, are vain and poor ; 

There's nothing rich but Heaven. 

" Creation's mighty fabric all 

Shall be to atoms riven ; 
The skies consume, the planets fall, 
Convulsions rock this earthly ball ; 

There's nothing firm but Heaven." 

Mr. G. W. Woodward, of Philadelphia. Mr. Presi- 
dent : Once more an afflictive Providence reminds us 
that in the midst of life we are in death. Once more 
we pause in the active duties of life to think and 
speak of death. It is said the insatiate archer loves 
a shining mark. He has sped his arrows at two of 
our most distinguished and valued members. He 
has snatched away from us the two members, in the 
persons of Col. Hopkins and Mr. M'Allister, whom 
we could least afford to spare. 

" The death of those distinguished by their station. 
But by their virtue more, awakes the mind 
To solemn dread, and strikes a saddening awe. 
Not that we grieve for them, but for ourselves, 
Left to the toil of life." 

It was in the spring of i(S4i — thirty-two years 



- 



OB ITU A RY A DDR ESSES. 



ago — that I was sent to preside in the courts of the 
Fourth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, consisting 
then of the counties of Mifflin, Huntingdon, Centre, 
Clearfield and Clinton, and there I first met Mr. 
M'Allister. He resided at Bellefonte, Centre County, 
but was growing into a large and lucrative practice 
in several counties of the district. For ten years he 
practiced law before me with great ability and success. 
I have never seen so laborious and pains-taking a 
lawyer. His great forte lay in the preparation of his 
causes. He never came into court unfurnished with 
evidence, if evidence could, with any amount of 
research and industry, be obtained to establish the 
facts of the case. Many ejectments upon original 
titles were tried in those ten years, and I have known 
Mr. M'Allister to give fifty or sixty warrants and 
surveys in evidence, to fix the location of the one 
tract in suit. He would sweep over a wdiole district 
of country and examine surveyors as to every mark 
in miles of lines, to verify the conclusions he washed 
to establish in the cause upon trial. In all lawsuits, 
but especially in ejectments upon original titles, the 
law arises upon the facts in evidence, and he is the 
most philosophical and successful lawyer who arranges 
his facts most fully, and places them before the court 
and jury in that orderly sequence which is most 
natural and logical. Perhaps I have known lawyers 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER 



of more subtle reasonintr faculties than Mr. M'Allister 
possessed, but I never knew one who could prepare 
a cause so well. 

But he was not a mere lawyer. He took a lively 
and intelligent interest in all public questions, and 
when the State Agricultural Society was formed he 
brougrht into that the same methodical and earnest 
habits which had always distinguished him at the bar, 
and became a valuable member and manag^er of that 
useful institution. Very much through his influence 
the late General James Irvin was induced to give a 
valuable farm, in Penn's Valley, as the seat for the 
Farm School, which was established thereon and is 
still flourishincr. In the erection of the colleg-e build- 
ings, the conduct of the school and the farm, and, 
indeed, in all the expenses and labors incident to this 
great undertaking, Mr. M'Allister bore a foremost 
and conspicuous part. It is no exaggeration to say 
that, notwithstanding the munificent donation of 
General Irvin, (for which his name should be held in 
grateful memory,) the State would not have had the 
F'arm School at the time and to the extent it was 
established, had it not been for the indomitable energy 
and perseverance of Mr. M'Allister. He had excel- 
lent co-laborers, among whom I rejoice to mention 
with affection, the late James T. Hale, but Mr. 
M'Allister was the master spirit of that enterprise, 



3 2 OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 

and to him more than to any, and perhaps, to all 
others, is the public indebted for one of the noblest 
institutions of our day. Not only a good lawyer, he 
was a good farmer ; and what is higher praise, he was 
a good man. The church of Christ, education, and 
all moral and reformatory agencies and influences 
received countenance and liberal support from him. 

Of his distinguished services in this body there is 
no need for me to speak. You wisely placed him at 
the head of our most important committee, and he 
addressed himself to his duties with an assiduity 
that was characteristic, but quite too much for his 
enfeebled health. What he recommended, by way of 
reform of the ballot, was gladly adopted by the Con- 
vention and will stand as an imperishable monument 
to his wisdom, 

Mr. President, when 1 think of that picturesque 
and beautiful village of Bellefonte, and of the refined 

o 

and intelligent society 1 found there in 1841, it makes 
my heart ache to think of the desolation death hath 
wrought there. There was John Blanchard, one ot 
the noblest men it has been my good fortune to know, 
and Bond Valentine, a genial Quaker, and James T. 
Hale, a man of rare endowments, and James Petrikin. 
a lawyer, an artist and a wit, and James Burnside, 
who was everybody's friend and had a friend in every- 
body. These were the lawyers among whom Mr. 



JIOX. HUGH NELSON AH ALLISTEK. 



M'Allister laid the deep and solid foundations ot his 
professional character, and now they are all sj;one to 
that judgment bar before which we must all ere long 
appear. Bellefonte has, indeed, reason to mourn for 
such losses, and to say, with old Jacob, " if I be 
bereaved ol my children I am bereaved." 

Mr. Carter. Mr. President: x^lthoug-h standing 
here this bright May morning, amidst health and 
strength, I yet seem to feel in the shadow of a great 
sorrow, almost as if in the awful presence of the 
messenger of death. As the eldest member of the 
Committee on Suffrage, of which Mr. M'Allister was 
chairman, I would ofter my brief tribute of respect 
to his memory, and be permitted to say a few words 
expressive of the high regard I had for him, as a true, 
conscientious man, whose eye ever seemed single to 
his path of duty and labor. 

I never knew him personally until we met in Har- 
risburg as members of this Convention, though I had 
olten heard of the wonderful, persistent energy which 
he so long displayed in building up and sustaining an 
institution which he believed would be of great public 
benefit, and this, too, under all kinds of discourage- 
ments, and without hope of reward, other than that 
which follows the performance of duty. I)ut being- 
thrown much in his company last winter, I soon dis- 



OBirUAR V ADDRESSES. 



covered him to be a firm, unHinchinor advocate of re- 
form, and thoug'h by nature conservative, he ever 
seemed desirous to go any length to reform or cor- 
rect those abuses that had gradually crept into the 
government. His earnestness of purj^ose, and intense 
energy of character and zeal, could brook no barriers 
in his way. His industry was ever unfiagging, and 
surely such a course is worthy of our praise and such 
a character of our imitation. His end was, no doubt, 
hastened by his unwillingness to remain away from 
his field of lalwr. I often last winter felt it my duty 
to caution him of the danger of exertion in his weak 
state, but without avail. He had come here for an 
object; he had to work; his eye was single to that 
object alone. Methinks, sir, I see him now, as pass- 
ing down the aisle, with his usual roll of papers in 
his hands, over which he had been engaged, perhaps, 
tor hours, with his preoccupied look and manner. 
Nothing but labor for him. Some men, Mr. Presi- 
dent, pass through life, apparently without an object 
or purpose, seeking their own ease and sensual grati- 
fication, and totally indifferent to or unconscious of 
their responsibilities and the field of duty their 
Creator had assigned them, not knowing that He had 
conferred on them the high privilege of being co- 
laborers with Him in the crreat work of elevating 
humanity. How many engage in the pursuit of 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 35 

wealth as the great object of human existence, con- 
tent to elbow their way throug-h the world, regardless 
of the beautiful and refining influences which, if cul- 
tivated, would irradiate their path through life and 
hallow its close; and never realizing- that the true 
man should aim at leaving the W'Orld a little better 
for his having lived in it. Not such was our friend; 
to him duty was the pole-star of his life; honest, un- 
remitting labor with unselfish end, his life course; 
always just and honest in intention, and a serious, 
straightforward man at all times. Such was his char- 
acter, and such his life, as described by his life-long 
friend. Governor Curtin. Such men are too scarce 
not to be prized and respected. But he is gone; his 
long, active life is ended ; he has found the rest he 
has so well earned. The icy hand of death has 
stilled the throbbing- pulse and cooled the fevered 
brain. 

"Life's fitful fever o'er, he sleeps well." 

Soon his mortal remains will be borne to the silent 
tomb, at his distant home, by his sorrowing friends 
and neighbors, who knew his worth and lament his 
loss. There will he rest, amid the cjuiet, rural scenes 
he loved so well, and had done so much to adorn. 
May we all benefit by his example. 



OBI TUA R Y A I) J) R ESSES. 



Mr. Andkiav Rkkd, of Mifflin County. Mr. Presi- 
dent: Scarcely have the ha])iHments of moiirnino- 
which draped this hall in niemor)- of the late William 
Hopkins, been removed, when the announcement is 
made that another seat, in the same row, on the same 
side of this chamber, is vacant. H. N. M'Allister is 
dead. 

Living as he did, in an adjoining- count)', and in the 
sanie district which I have the honor, in part, to repre- 
sent on this floor, I feel that I would be false not only 
to the promptings of my own nature, but also to that 
sense of duty which would seem to require it if, on an 
occasion of this kind, I did not bear my testimon)- to 
his worth as a man, a lawyer, a Christian, a neighbor 
and friend. 

I liave known Mr. M'Allister from bo)-hood. As a 
mail. I/is chief cJiaractcristic, in luy opinion, loas that of 
untirino- cna'oy in tlic prosecution of conceived duty. 
F^verything he undertook, whether in church, in State, 
or in his private business, received the attention ot 
all his |)owers, both of mind and ho<\\. He was a 
positive man; there was nothing negative in his char- 
acter. He formed opinions on nearly every subject 
which came before him, and then clung to them with 
a persistency which could only arise from a settled 
belief in their right. These traits exhibit themselves 
in all the relations of his life. 



HON. HUGH NELSON M ' ALL IS TER. ,3 7 

As a lawyer he was distinguished for abihty, in- 
teqrity and assiduous devotion to the interests of his 
rhents. The best energies of his Hfe w^ere spent in 
the service of his profession; a profession wliicli has 
been well said ''to be old as magistracy, noble as 
virtue, and necessary as justice." 

As a Christian he showed forth the same qualities 
of perseverance and energy which distinguished his 
labors in the law. Instead of observing just enough 
of the outward forms to give him the name, he was 
active, zealous and working. He attended upon all 
the ordinances of the church to which he beloneed, 
and to its support and the support of its different 
boards he contributed with an unwonted liberality. 

As a citizen \\t\ was conspicuous in the advocacy 
and support of all measures which tended to improve 
and benefit the common weal. As a neighbor and 
friend he was kind and true. A person with the 
qualities of Mr. M'Allister could not but make his 
mark on the community in which he lived and 
moved. 

He was not an office-seeker. His temperament 
and habits had nothing in them congenial to the pur- 
suits of the politician ; while, if they had, his great 
devotion to the pursuit ot his prof(;ssion left no room 
tor their exercise. 

The election ot Mr. M'AllistcM* as a delesj'ate to this 



38 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

Convention met with the approbation of not only the 
part)' with which he w^as connected, in the section of 
country where he w^as known, but of all parties. 
They knew^ that as tar, at least, as he was concerned, 
neither j)arty considerations nor anything- else would 
induce him to swerve from what he considered to be 
the right, and the Journal of our proceedings will 
show that they w^ere not mistaken in their man. His 
voice and vote will alwa}'s be found on the side of 
that which tends to promote greater purity in the 
administration of public affairs. 

He took great interest in the work of the Conven- 
tion. When exhausted nature would have seemed to 
forbid it, we still found him at his post. But a few 
days belore he died I was at his bedside, when he 
in(piired of me what the Convention w^as doing, and 
when told that a certain section of the judiciary report 
was under consideration, he expressed his regret at 
not being able to attend, and hoped that certain pro- 
visions to secure the independence and purity of the 
judiciary would be adopted. He is now gone. The 
Convention, the State, the church, the community in 
which he lived, and his family w^ill all feel and deplore 
his loss. 

Mr. J. M. Bailkv, of Huntingdon County. Mr. 
President: The second time has the silent messenoer 



HON. HUGH NELSON M'ALLISTER. 39 

stolen in upon our deliberations, and has removed 
another of our number to that "undiscovered country 
from whose bourne no traveler returns." 

While the visits of death are frequent, yet we never 
become accustomed to them, and always stand in awe 
at his presence. Terrible and full of warning as such 
visits always are, it is strange we heed them so little, 
and never fully realize their dreadful reality, until 
death's arrow strikes an object near to our own 
hearts. 

In rising to second the resolutions so eloquently 
and feelingly presented by the distinguished delegate 
from Centre, (Mr. Curtin,) I desire, upon this melan- 
choly occasion, to pay my humble tribute to the 
memory and worth of him who so lately was our 
associate here, but now is no more. Hugh N. 
M'Allister, as a man, was positive and earnest, honest 
and faithful, sincere and generous, assiduous and 
untiring in all he undertook — "whatsoever his hands 
found to do, he did with his might." 

Among the bold and daring he was as bold and 
brave as any. Among the faithful he was as faithful 
as any. Among the wise and intellectual, he had as 
much wisdom as any. While his disposition was as 
gentle and unsuspecting and artless as truth herself, 
he was, when aroused in the performance of a dut)', 
as couraueous as a lion. 



40 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



But, sir, whatever eiilotj;-ies may be passed on him 
upon this Ooor, or whatever the biographer may write 
about him, no higher tribute can be paid to his per- 
sonal cliaracter and private worth than this, that he 
loas the idol of his family. Whatever a man ma}' 
seeni to the world — in whatever disguise he may be 
able to conceal himself from others — he is always 
exposed to his own family; if he be insincere, untrue 
or unkind, none know it sooner; and if he be honest 
and noble, their affection will attest it. And I would 
rather trust to such silent testimony to a man's moral 
w^orth than to all the eulogies and panegyrics that 
can be pronounced. 

As a Clu'istiaii — his virtuous lite attested the sin- 
cerity and fidelity of his profession, as well as the 
power and goodness of the Christion religion. 

As a citizen — he was true and public spirited, 
alwa)s encouraging and aiding such enterprises as 
in his opinion w^ould advance the material and social 
interests ot his State and community; and to what- 
ever [project he laid his hand he pushed it with that 
assiduous eftort and untiring perseverance and earn- 
est vigor which was the secret ot his success in life. 

As a lazoycr — he had no superior in central Penn- 
sylvania; his unswerving integrity in his prot'ession 
commanded the respect and confidence of every one. 
He was alwa\s courteous to his adversaries, true to 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 41 



the court as well as his client, and always having pre- 
pared his cause well by the dint of labor and study, 
he ably tried it. I sa)- liis caiisc\ for he always made 
his client's cause his own. He never sought public 
position, but frequendy declined it. Devoted to his 
profession he was satisfied with whatever of fame his 
skillful and successful practice might reward him, and 
with such remuneration as its faithful pursuit might 
bring to him. He never sought the people for any 
thing, but the people sought him for all they have 
given him. 

As a member of tJiis Convention — none labored 
harder or with a more earnest and anxious desire to 
faithfully perform his duties. He was not working 
ror fame — no man courted famedessthan he — but the 
necessity of reform had so fastened itself upon his 
earnest and faithful nature as to allow him no rest 
from the labor which, as a member of this Conven- 
tion, he had assumed. And no one can doubt, sir, 
diat this excessive labor hastened his death. Ol him 
it is literally true, lie oave his life to his State. 

And now, sir, in concluding these hasty remarks, 
allow me to hold up as worthy of our imitation, the 
life of Hugh N. M'Allister, and point to the secret of 
his great success, which lay in his unswerving tidelit)'. 
in his Christian life, in his indomitable energy, untir- 
ing labor and ever enduring perseverance, and point 

' 6 ' 



4 2 OBITUAR Y ADDRESSES. 

to this grand moral in it: N^cvci' seek piiblie position, 
and never sJiirk nor stint eitJier a pul^lie or private duty. 

''Honor and fame from no condition rise, 
Act well your part — there all the honor lies." 

Mr. Harry White, of Indiana County. Mr. Presi- 
dent: I would gladly be silent if I were not conscious 
silence was not the performance of my duty. When 
the yeas and nays hereafter are called in our proceed- 
ings, the name of M'Allister will give no response. 

"Like the dew on the mountain, 
Like the foam on the river, 
Like the bubble on the fountain. 
Thou art gone forever." 

Our deceased associate was a man who " feared 
God, loved truth, and hated covetousness." He had 
attained this degree of excellence through years of 
earnest effort for a proper life. It has been properly 
said that he was one of our most upright, sincere and 
industrious members. He has lost his life from a 
disease contracted in earnest and devoted attention 
to his duties in this body. There are those here 
whom we should, in the course of nature, have ex- 
pected to precede him to "that bourne whence no 
traveler returns." You, Mr. President, and others, 
were his seniors in years. They have been left and 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 43 

he has been taken. Faithfully and well he performed 
his part in life. Now, at its close, his friends, and we, 
his survivors, can stand at his open tomb and take an 
instructive retrospect. 

A brief biography of his life has been appro- 
priately and properly given by those who knew and 
associated with him in his useful career. In the place 
of his residence, a beautiful town nestling in the 
mountains of the State we are called here to serve, 
he had attained a prominence and excellence in his 
profession proper to be held before the young and 
before the ambitious at the bar. Shunning public life 
because he disliked the associations and jostlings 
necessary for success there, he did not shun public 
duty; a grateful relief from his professional cares, 
anxieties and conflicts was the occupation of the agri- 
culturist. How happy he was when, upon his farm 
adjoining the town of his residence, he exhibited to 
his visitor the degree of cultivation of which the 
native soil was susceptible, and aided in giving proper 
encouragement to that employment the Father of his 
country said "was the noblest occupation of men." 

It has been my privilege, sir, more than once to 
partake of the liberal hospitality, at his home, of our 
deceased associate. When the delegates from the 
different parts of the State met at the town of his 
residence, near the location of the Agricultural Col- 



44 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



lege of Pennsylvania, the home of Mr. M'Allister was 
opened to all. It was the centre to which all repaired, 
and which every visitor left with regret. It was my 
honor and privilege, Mr. President, to be associated 
for four years as a member of the Board of Trustees 
of the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. I would 
be false to the recollection of those associations if I 
did not now pay proper tribute to his industry and 
usefulness, to his sincere devotion, to his earnest 
enthusiasm for the great work with which he was so 
intimately connected. Time and again, suffering Irom 
infirmities incident to approaching years, he left the 
comforts and quiet of his agreeable home to attend 
the meetings of the Board, in a distant town. Time 
and again he visited the experimental farms located 
in different portions of the State, paying his own ex- 
penses, and refusing any remuneration for the contri- 
bution of his valuable time. 

A more sincere man, a more earnest public ser- 
vant, in any position he occupied, I never knew in m)' 
limited experience. It is said: 

"The evil that men do, lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones." 

We who knew Mr. M'Allister, who knew him as a 
law^yer, who knew him as an a<'riculturist, who knew 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 45 

him as a citizen, owe it to public virtue, owe it to pri- 
vate worth, to pay proper tribute to his memory. 

Mr. M'Alhster's death, it has been properly said, 
will create a void in the community in which he lived. 
No eloquence is necessary to impress this upon us. 
A void, sir, must be felt in that community for which 
he had done so much. Missed ! Yes, there he will 
most be missed. There he was known as the affec- 
tionate husband, the kind father, the Christian gentle- 
man. There he attained his professional eminence, 
and so great was his integrity that his statements 
were always accepted by the courts before which he 
practiced. 

His conflicts in professional life did not prevent the 
exercise, in his community, of his liberal and enter- 
prising spirit. While our deceased brother had, in 
common with humanity, some peculiarities, yet in no 
sense was he a narrow or illiberal man. His was the 
voice of public improvement, and tireless hours of 
his life have been spent to aid the development and 
advancement of the resources and industries of the 
Commonwealth. As a citizen, then, no less than 
law)'er, husband, parent, friend, will he be missed at 
his home and all over our State. 

Hugh N. M'Allister was indeed a great man, great 
because he never undertook without bringing success; 
he never embarked in an enterprise unless he gave 



- 



46 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

it all the power and the stimulus of his great energy 
and intellect. Literally did he obey the scriptural 
injunction: "What thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might." Yes, sir, Hugh N. M'Allister, our de- 
ceased associate, was in every sense of the term a 
great man, and in his death how natural to recall that 
sentiment of Longfellow: 

" The lives of great men all remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime; 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time." 

Mr. J. G. Patton, of Bradford County. Mr. Presi- 
dent: When the Convention adjourned on Friday last, 
little did we think we should be called upon, so soon, to 
mourn the loss of an honored and prominent member 
of this body. But the unrelenting hand of death is 
no respecter of persons. The rich and the poor, the 
proud and the lowly, alike are in turn made the vic- 
tims of its unerring aim. 

It was my privilege and my g-ood fortune to know 
Mr. M'Allister for many years. I have had the 
pleasure of meeting him at his home in Bellefonte, 
where he has long resided. But for the past few 
years 1 have not seen much of him. Wlien, however, 
I met him in the Convention at Harrisburg-, we re- 
newed our acquaintance, and I was pleased to notice, 



HON. HUGH NELSON AFALLISTER. 47 

in our intercourse, that his judgment was still sound, 
that his intellect was as fresh and vigorous as the day 
I first knew him, notwithstanding age had furrowed 
his brow and silvered his locks. 

It has been 1)ut a few days since he was here in our 
midst, moving around in comparatively comfortable 
health, always to be found at his post of duty, looking 
after the best interests of his native State. 

He was a close student, a gentleman of great ex- 
perience and learning, of inflexible integrity, of great 
tenacity of purpose ; a man of great industry — faith- 
ful and honest in the discharge of every trust confided 
to his care. Possessed of sterling honor, and a high 
sense of justice, he could not be swerved from the 
path of duty by any pretense, however plausible or 
alluring. He performed every duty with an honest 
purpose to practice and exemplify the virtues of a 
Christian gentleman. 

As chairman of the Committee on Suffrage, Elec- 
tion and Representation, he was an active and effi- 
cient member, and we all remember with what earn- 
estness and power he advocated and explained the 
report of the committee and urged its adoption. 

But he has gone to the life beyond, and we have 
one member less than we had at our last meeting. 

This Hall, which has so often echoed with the 
sound of his familiar voice, will be again draped in 



- 



4.S OBrrUAKY ADDRESSES. 

mourning', out of respect to the memory of our 
departed brother, and to remind us that death has 
again invaded our body, and summoned another 
worthy member to his final home. 

Let us all prepare, then, for the great hereafter that 
awaits us, for but few decades will intervene before 
we in turn shall be summoned to follow. 

Mr. WiLiJAM Lilly, of Carbon Count}-. Mr. 
President : I rise in my place at the risk of being 
considered presumptuous, to add a very few words 
to what has been so fitly and well spoken in eulogy 
to the memory of our late fellow-delegate, H. N. 
M'Allister, for whom we mourn to-day as one lately 
passed away. 

My personal acquaintance with him commenced at 
Harrisburg, in November last, upon the convening of 
this body. My knowledge of him extends to many 
years past, for a man of so much philanthropy must 
be known over the whole State that he has so greatly 
benefited by his self-sacrificing acts for the public 
good. 1 had the honor of a place upon the committee 
of this Convention over which he presided. From 
the time of the organization of the committee at Har- 
risburg until he was stricken by the disease that 
proved fatal to his life, no man could have been more 
faithful to his trust and to what he conceived to be 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 49 

his dut\'. Always at his post, ever zealous in the 
perfectino- of that which was before him. 

He was strono- in his convictions — honest as the 
sun — when once convinced that he was rii^dit he 
would stand as firm as the eternal hills. I firmly 
believe he would have died for the faith that was in 
him. 

Vox these stern and inflexible cjualities I learned to 
respect and admire him as one of God's noblest 
works — an honest man. Peace be to his ashes. 

Mr. A. A. PuRMAN, of Greene County. Mr. Presi- 
dent: This occasion — the death of Hon. Hugh N. 
M'Allister — is full of melancholy interest. It is not 
because it is new ; for the annals of time are crowded 
with memorials of the dead, with repetitions of sor- 
rows which know no end, and with renewals of 
anguish which continually find utterance upon the 
departure of the good, the wise, and the great. The 
present event is another evidence of the general 
course of human e.xperience — that youth, manhood 
and age drop into the grave in all the pride of their 
beauty, their power, and their brightest hopes. Such 
is human life. 

It is but a few weeks since we were weeping over 
the death of that good, wise, and pure man and Chris- 
tian gentleman, Col. William Hopkins, an occasion 



^ o OBITUAR Y ADDRESSES. 



which called forth all my sympathies for the afflicted 
family of the deceased, as well as the present. 
Doubtless it is in accord with the wisdom of Provi- 
dence that hiunan life should be held by so frail a 
tenure. We are not permitted to be insensible to 
the dangers that everywhere surround us. Provi- 
dence intends that we shall be daily touched with the 
sense of human infirmity. In the death of this good 
man we learn again the salutary lesson that Provi- 
dence has allotted to each of us his own sufferings ; 
that there is no exemption of age, or rank, or station, 
but that there is a common doom appointed for all. 
As we feel the yet distant evils while administering 
to the calamities of others with a soothing kindness, 
let us improve the occasion to make us wiser, holier 
and better. 

The life of our departed friend, Hon. Hugh N. 
M'Allister, has been one of toil and usefulness, both 
to his friends and the State. But death has consigned 
him to the home where he shall rest until that hour 
when it shall be declared that the dead shall live and 
that the living shall die. 

I will not attempt to recount his virtues or recall 
his character. 

What can I say that has not been already better 
said? What can I suggest which has not already 
been suggested, or suggests itself to your own hearts 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 



and to the hearts of his near and dear friends in a 
more touching- form? We can look back upon the 
hte of our departed friend with an approving con- 
sciousness. We can see everything to love and 
admire in his character, and nothing- to awaken regret 
for intentional error so common in mankind. Such 
as he was we can bear him in our hearts and on our 
lips with manly praise. We can hold him up as a fit 
example for youthful emulation and ambition, not 
dazzling, but elevated; not ostentatious, but pure. 
His name can justly be breathed as a watch-word for 
honesty, while his public and private life will thrill as 
the oracles. 

Mr. J. A. Simpson, of Philadelphia. Mr. President: 
There are moments in every man's life when the 
tong-ue refuses to perform its office, when it is meet 
that his voice should be still, as the fittest expression 
of his emotion ; there are other moments when duty 
commands him to speak, or, as the Preacher says: 

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to 
every purpose under the heaven; a time to keep 
silence and a time to speak." 

Sir, I should feel that I had failed in the perform- 
ance of a duty if I were to remain silent at a moment 
as solemn as this is, whilst others were bearing their 
testimony to the worth and faithfulness of our 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



deceased brother; it I, too, did not present my tribute 
and lay one leaf of laurel upon that open coffin. 

It was my fortune. Mr. President, to have made the 
acquaintance of our lamented fellow-member, some 
sixteen years ago, whilst attending court in one of the 
counties composing- the section ot the State where he 
lived ; that acquaintance was but a casual one, how- 
ever, and probably never would have been more than 
that but for the occurrences that brought us together 
again as members of this body. 

You, Mr. President, deemed it proper to place me 
upon the committee of which he was the honored 
head, and it was there, in the committee room, or in 
his chamber, discussing and preparing business for 
the consideration of the committee, or the Convention, 
that I became impressed with his untiring energy, his 
earnestness, and the zeal that he brought to the dis- 
charge of his duties ; and it was there, too, that I 
learned how entirely, how devotedly he brought ever\' 
faculty of his mind to bear upon the important ques- 
tions before the committee — nothing too great tor his 
grasp, nothing too small to escape his scrutiny. 

Differing from him. as I did. upon some ot the 
questions that we had to consider, it is but proper 
that I should sa)- that the fidelity and integrity dis- 
played by his earnest advocacy of such measures as 
he deemed important in the cause of real retorm, con- 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 53 

vinced me that his convictions were honestly enter- 
tained, and that he at least was impressed with the 
thought that the labors of the Convention, whether 
performed upon this floor, in the committee room or 
elsewhere, were no child's play, no mere holiday pas- 
time : every source of knowledge open to him was 
penetrated, I might say ransacked, to obtain informa- 
tion bearing upon the subject specially committed to 
his charge, yet he did not forget those in which all 
had a common interest. Few of the members of this 
Convention were his equals in diligent search for 
light ; none, I venture to say, his superiors. 

But, Mr. President, this second invasion of our 
circle should remind us "that it is appointed unto 
man once to die ;" sooner or later the summons will 
come to each of us ; none are too exalted to escape, 
none too lowly to be overlooked or forgotten. We 
shall be commanded to lay aside this mortality and 
put on immortality, and whether we are ready or not, 
whether our work is done or undone, the summons 
must be obeyed. Like the patriarch of old, like our 
brother whom we mourn, may each of us have his 
loins girded, his sandals bound upon his feet, and with 
staff in hand be ready to enter upon that journey 
from which there is no return. May we have "our 
lamps trimmed and burning," so that when we are 
called it shall be from labor to reward ; and tliat it 



54 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

may be said of us, as we can say of our departed 
friend and brother : 

"Let Faith exalt her joyful voice, 

And now in triumph sing ; 
O Grave, where is thy victory ? 

And where, O Death, thy sting?" 

Mr. W. H. Smith, of Allegheny County. To me, 
Mr. President, this dispensation has been peculiarly 
impressive. The lamented delegate from Washing- 
ton, the honest and earnest Mr. Hopkins, sat here on 
the right, and Mr. M'Allister sat on the left of my 
seat, but one cliair removed from my own. Owing 
to the occasional absence of the delegate from Frank- 
lin, I was brought into very frequent intercourse with 
our last departed co-laborer. And although I never 
met him but once before I found him here, and know 
but little of his character or antecedents, I have been 
impressed with his unflinching constancy and firmness 
in maintaining what he considered to be right. His 
labors in this body, and in thc! committee on which he 
served, were untiring, and I am informed that his 
anxiety about our progress here and its final results 
were intense and without intermission. Like Mr. 
Hopkins, who only a few weeks ago preceded him on 
the inevitable journey " to that undiscovered country," 
he entertained the homely and primitive sentiment 



HON. HUGH NELSON APALLISTER. 55 



that to hold pubHc office was not a privilege only, but 
a privilege that was associated with a high responsi- 
bility. Whoever may have been neglectful of duty 
or faithless to their official obligations among the 
many servants of this great Commonwealth, it may be 
emphatically said of Hopkins and M'Allister that they 
were eminently faithful — faithful even unto death. I 
might go even yet further, Mr. President, and say that 
he who has just left us has sacrificed his health and 
life to extraordinary labors here. Indeed, we may 
suppose that the lives of both these good and 
exemplary men might have been prolonged for much 
usefulness if duty here had never been undertaken 
by them, or if their part had been performed in an 
inattentive or casual way. To each or either of them 
the State may say with unreserved approval of their 
labors, "well done, thou good and faithful servant," 
and to all that remain, "let your official course and 
conduct be like theirs," 

Mr. M. Hall Stanton, of Philadelphia. Mr. Presi- 
dent: In the death of our much-honored and esteemed 
colleague, the Hon. Hugh N. M'Allister, of Bellefonte, 
our Convention has lost a most useful member, and 
Pennsylvania a son whose life and character have 
been to her "an honor and a pride." 

His unexpected death — unexpected, at least, to 



5 6 OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 

many of us — has cast a g'loom over our proceedings, 
a shadow over the pleasant relations existin^j^ amony^ 
us, which time alone can dispel. Few men ever 
gained more friends in so brief a period as did the 
lamented departed while in our midst. 

His amiable disposition, gentle manners, good 
cjualities, and manly, honest bearing, endeared him to 
all with whom he came in contact. He was a man ol 
extraordinary energy, and of a virtue ot character 
which commanded universal respect and admiration. 
Beloved and honored at home, esteemed and revered 
abroad, his death, in the micist of his usefulness and 
valuable services, has caused a vacuum not easily 
filled. As chairman of the Committee on Suftrage, 
Election and Representation, he proved his great 
ability, extensive knowledge, and thorough honesty 
of purpose in his aim to serve the interests ot the 
people of our Commonwealth. He was also an in- 
valuable member of the Committee on Railroads and 
Canals, and whenever duty required, his voice was 
heard upon every important measure which had come 
before this Convention up to the hour when the grim 
monster, laying his hand upon him, bade him to come 
up no more to this place. But he is gone from among 
us. His seat is vacant, and his strong voice is hushed 
forever. 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 57 



" Leaves have their time to tall, 
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 

And stars to set — but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death." 

We who mourn his loss can the more readily sym- 
pathize with those to whom his death will involve 
many a day of sorrow which time alone can alleviate, 
and reliofion alone can reconcile. To those bereaved 
ones we sincerely extend our sympathy; feeling, also, 
that they have the consolation to know that their 
beloved departed had lived a life honorable to himself 
his family and his State, and in the fear and service 
of his God. He was truly such a man as the poet had 
in mind when he said, 

" Man is his own star : And the soul that can 
Render an honest and a perfect man, 
Commands all light, all influence, all fate ; 
Nothing to him falls early or too late." 

Mr. Frank Mantor, of Crawford County. Mr. 
President: Standing in this hall as I do this mornino-, 
I desire to say but one word on this solemn and im- 
portant occasion. I cast my eye on this side of the 
hall and I see two seats which have been made vacant 
by death, and all within a very brief period of time — 
a few days at most. Two delegates in the active 
pursuits of life have been called away, one whose 
eulogy has already been pronounced by nearly a 

'8 



5 8 OBITUAR Y ADDRESSES. 

score of delegates on this rioor. The words tliey 
uttered here are implanted in all our hearts. We 
then said, one to another, who next? This inquiry is 
well made, if we remember that sacred declaration 
that "there is hut one step hetiueeii thee and death.'' 
We all thought then as we now think, and as no 
doubt our worthy associate thought, ''it is not I but 
you, or some one else;" but it was not you nor I, but 
it was he, who thought as we thought then. But the 
grim messenger came, and by his never failing word, 
has beckoned his victim home, and we can say to-da)' 
in our own hearts, loJio next? It is jyv/ or I. It may 
not be this day or to-morrow, but the separation will 
come. It may be in the morning or the evening time 
that we shall be called from the toils and cares of life 
to the better land beyond. 

It is hard, it is unfortunate, to lose a friend like Mr. 
M'Allister. I became acquainted with him at an early 
stage of this Convention. I watched his movements; 
I saw his anxiety to do his duty, and more than once 
did I admonish him that he was overtaxing his system 
with the care that he was bestowing on his part of 
the work of this Convention, and his reply to me 
was; "/ luisJi to do my duty and to do it ivellT 

Such seemed to have been his most anxious 
thought, and from this standpoint he seemed always 
to be actino-. But, sir, we all know that he has died 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 59 

with the harness on — died a true man, whose life of 
industry we can safely imitate. This Convention can 
ill afford to lose him; but then he rests in peace. No 
more shall life's troubled ocean toss his frail bark, 
and as we bid him a final farewell, we can say: 

" Unveil thy bosom, sacred tomb, 

Take this treasure to thy trust, 
And give these sacred relics room 

To slumber in the silent dust. 

Nor grief, nor fear, nor anxious care 
Invades thy bounds. No mortal woes 

Can reach the silent sleeper there, 
Where angels watch his soft repose." 

Mr. T. E. Cochran, of York County. Mr. Presi- 
dent : I should have no warrant to interpose in the 
bestowal of these memorial tributes to the distin- 
guished delegate at large from the County of Centre, 
were it not for the fact that he was a member of the 
committee of which I had the honor to be chairman 
by your appointment. I think it is proper for me to 
bear testimony here to the great earnestness, zeal 
and fidelity with which he labored to discharge his 
duty upon that committee. Day after day he was 
assiduous in his attendance, and even at a time when 
sickness would have prevented almost any one else 



6o OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

from laboring, he came to the committee room and 
gave us the benefit of his counsel and his services. 

Mr. President, we had every evidence to satisfy our 
minds of the perfect integrity and the full sincerity 
with which he entertained the opinions that he 
expressed, and advocated the measures that he pre- 
ferred. He was indeed a man Justus ct toiax propositi. 
a man who was firm and devoted in his purpose, and 
unswerving in the vindication of that which he 
believed to be rioht. It was most prateful, sir, to 
agree with him in opinion, because we knew that 
when we agreed with him we had the concurrence of 
a man of sound judgment and of single honesty of 
purpose. Opposition in opinion to him seemed to 
stir one with an emotion resembling 

" The stern joy which warriors feel 
In foemen worthy of their steel ;" 

for he met contest of opinion fairh' and scpiarely. and 
encountered those who differed from him face to 
face. 

Sir, that was the characteristic of Mr. M'Allister in 
his connection with the committee of which I have 
had the honor to be chairman, and I think there is no 
member of that committee who will not sa)' that these 
few words which I have uttered here are a simple and 



. 

HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 6i 

just acknowledgment of his merits and of his services 
among us. 

Mr. President, his labors on earth with us are 
ended; but we have the consolation to confidently 
believe that he has departed to a higher sphere of 
reward above. We have a right to entertain "the 
reasonable, religious and holy hope" th-at "for him to 
depart was for better," while his departure is indeed 
to us a loss which we have the greatest reason to 
lament. 

The President. The question is on the resolutions 
of the Pfentlemen from Centre. 

The first resolution was unanimously adopted. 
The President. The second resolution will be 
read. 

The second resolution was read, as follows: 
Resolved, That his death deprives this Convention 
of one of its most enlightened and industrious mem- 
bers, the Commonwealth of one of her most j)ublic 
spirited and useful citizens, the community in which 
he lived of a man whose indomitable energy, inflexi- 
ble integrity, and spotless moral character attracted 
to him the confidence and affection of all who knew 
him, and his family of a kind and devoted husband 
and father. 

The resolution was unanimous!)- adopted. 



\ 



62 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

Ihe next resolution was read the second time, as 
follows: 

Resolved, That we do most heartily offer to the 
members of his bereaved family the homage oi our 
sympathy and condolence in this the time of deep 
distress. 

The resolution was adopted. 

The next resolution was read the second time, as 
follows: 

Resolved, That in respect for the memory of our 
departed colleague, the President is requested to 

appoint a committee of delegates to attend his 

funeral at Bellefonte, on Thursday next. 

The President. There is a blank in this resolu- 
tion. How shall it be filled? 

Mr. CuKTTN. I suggest seven. 

The President. Seven is named. If no other 
number is named, the blank will be filled by seven. 
The question is on the resolution. 

The resolution was adopted. 

The last resolution was read the second time, as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to transmit 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 63 



a copy of these resolutions to the tamil)' of th(! 
deceased. 

The resohition was adopted. 

The President. It wih be entered on the Journal 
that these resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

Mr. BucKALEW. I ask leave to make a report from 
the Committee on Suffrage, Elections and Represent- 
ation. 

The President. The Committee on Suffrage, 
Elections and Representation ask leave to make a 
report at this time. Shall the committee have leave ? 

Leave was granted. 

Mr. BucKALEW. Mr. President: I report the reso- 
lutions adopted by that committee in reference to the 
death of their chairman. 

The President. The resolutions will be read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

In the Committee on Suffrage, Elections and Re- 
presentation, May 6, 1873, the following resolutions 
were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the members of this committee have 
heard with deep sensibility of the death of their chair- 
man, H. N. M'Allister, of Centre County, who has 
fallen at his post of duty, leaving an honored memory 
among all his colleagues of the Convention. 



64 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

That his death may be justly regarded as a piibHc 
loss, and to all of us who survive him, it brings sin- 
cere sorrow and regret. 

That we desire to bear willing testimony that, in 
the transaction of business by the committee and in 
his relations thereto, their late chairman always exhibi- 
ted untiring industry and earnestness, zeal for the 
rig-ht, and a sincere desire to reform all existing 
abuses in government. 

Resolved, That the acting chairman of the commit- 
tee be desired to present the foregoing resolution to 
the Convention, with the request that the same be 
entered upon the Journal, as a fitting tribute to the 
memory of the deceased. 

Mr. BucKALEW. I move an order that the resolu- 
tions reported be entered on the Journal. 

The motion was asfreed to. 

Mr. Church. I move that, as a further mark of 
respect, the Chief Clerk be directed to drape this 
Hall in mourning for the space of thirty days. 

The PREsn)ENT. The question is on the motion 
just made. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Mr. J. S. Mann, of Potter County. Mr. President: 
When a good man dies the people mourn, and it is 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 65 

fittino- and proper that his associates and companions 
should commeniorate his virtues over his open grave. 
I know how difficult it is to speak with profit on such 
an occasion ; and therefore I shall trust myself to 
utter but very few words. 

I have only to say that the body of Hugh N. 
M'Allister is dead, but his example still lives and 
will long live to bless the community in which he 
resided and the State of which he was an honored 
citizen, for, if it may be said of any man, it may truth- 
fully be said of him, that he was one of the noblest 
works of God, an honest man. Out of respect for 
his memory, therefore, I now move that the Conven- 
tion take a recess until three o'clock. 

The motion was agreed to, and at twelve o'clock 
and eiorht minutes, the Convention took a recess 
until three o'clock, P. M. 

The President appointed Andrew G. Curtin, of 
Centre, Andrew Reed, of Mifflin, John M. Bailey, of 
Huntingdon, William H. vSmith, of Allegheny, Thomas 
R. Hazzard, of Washington, J. Alexander Simpson, 
of Philadelphia, and George N. Corson, of Mont- 
gomery, Committee ordered by the resolutions ; all 
of whom attended the funeral of the deceased, which 
took place at Bellefonte, Centre County, on Thurs- 
day the 8th day of Ma)', 1873. 
9 



BIOGRAPHY 



OF THE 



Hon. H. N. M'Allister was of Scotch-Irish descent; 
his great grandfather having" emigrated from Ireland 
to Lancaster County, Pa., about the year 1730. His 
grandfather, Major Hugh M'Alhster, was born in 
Little Britian Township, Lancaster County, in 1 736. 
He enlisted as a private in Captain Forbes' compan)' 
in the Indian war of 1763, and served faithful!}- until 
the close of hostilities. Durino- the darkest hours of 
the revolutionary struggle Hugh M'Allister was the 
first man to volunteer as a private to form a com- 
pany for the purpose of reinforcing the shattereci 
army of Washington. This company was raised 
in Lost Creek Valley, now Juniata County, and 
was commanded by Captain John Hamilton, the 
father of Hugh Hamilton, Esq., of Harrisburg-. 
The company commanded by Captain Hamilton 
joined the army of Washington the day after the 
capture of the Hessians at l^renton. Hugh M'Allis- 



HON. H. N. M'ALLISTER. 



HON. HUGH NELSON M'ALLISTER. 67 

ter was successively promoted to be I.ieutenant 
Captain, and Major. Towards the close of the war 
he was in command of the forces stationed at Potter's 
Fort, Centre County, and commanded an expedition 
sent to punish the Indians for depredations com- 
mitted near the Great Island, where the city of Lock 
Haven now stands. At the close of the war Major 
M'Allister retired to his farm in Lost Creek Valley, 
funiata County. He was married to Sarah Nelson, 
and raised a large family. Hon. William M'Allister, 
son of Major Hugh M'Allister and Sarah Nelson, 
was born on the fann of his father, in Lost Creek 
Valley, in August, A. I)., 1774. He served as a 
soldier in the war of icSi2, and was, for a lonof time, 

one of the Associate Judges of Juniata County. He 
was married to Sarah Thompson. 

Hugh Nelson M'Allister, eldest son of Hon. Wil- 
liam M'Allister and Sarah Thompson, was born on 
the farm owned by his father and grandfather, in 
Lost Creek Valley, Juniata County. Pa., June 28th, 
1809. He lived at home, and worked upon his 
father's farm during his minority, receiving such 
elementary education as the schools of the neighbor- 
hood afforded. He received his instructions in the 
rudiments of the classics from Rev. |ohn Hutchinson. 
He entered the Freshman class at Jefferson College, 
Canonsburg, in 1830, and stood so high before the 



68 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

end of the year as to be chosen hy his society as one 
of its debaters, which honor, however, his modesty 
and timidity induced him to decHne. He graduated 
in 1833, high in a class in which were many more, 
since distinguished in the church and State. As soon 
as he graduated Mr. M'AlHster commenced the study 
of law, in the office of Hon. W. W. Potter, in Helle- 
fonte. After completing the ordinary course of stu- 
dies pursued by students in an office, he attended a 
law school, then conducted at Carlisle, by Hon. John 
Reed, President Judge of that district, and author of 
"Pennsylvania Plackstone." On the 25th of No- 
vember, 1835, on motion of W. W. Potter, Mr. M'Al- 
Hster was admitted to practice in the several courts 
of Centre County. He was at once taken into full 
partnership by Mr. Potter, and the election of the 
latter to Congress soon after threw at once the whole 
labor and responsibility of an extensive law practice 
upon the young partner. As in every subsequent 
situation in life Mr. M'Allister brought so much 
ability, earnestness, zeal, and indomitable persever- 
ance to bear as to overcome all obstacles, and to suc- 
cessfully meet all responsibilities resting upon him. 
The early death of Mr. Potter, while in Congress, left 
Mr. M'Allister alone in the practice, to compete with 
one of the ablest bars in the State. He remained 
without a partner until (icn. lames A. P)cavcr was 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 69 

called to the bar, in 1859. Prom that time the law 
practice was conducted under the firm name of 
M'Allister & Beaver. During the long professional 
career of nearly thirty-eight years, he had an exten- 
sive, laborious, and lucrative practice. Until the last 
eight or ten years he regularly attended the courts of 
Clinton and Huntingdon Counties, and, at times, 
courts of other counties. As a counsellor he was 
always discreet, careful and safe. As an attorney he 
was faithful, honest, and industrious. As an advo- 
cate was earnest, zealous and, at times, impressively 
eloquent. He would embark in no man's cause 
unless thoroughly impressed with \\s justice, and then 
he battled as only a man of his temperament could 
battle, for the rigJil. In the preparation of causes he 
was most thorough, and frequently performed an 
amount of labor which seemed beyond human endur- 
ance. His arguments before the Supreme Court of 
the State, of which the books of reports are full, were 
always strong, clear, and exhaustive. 

During the late war, Mr. M'Allister was one of the 
most earnest and zealous supporters of the adminis- 
tration. He was ever foremost in contributing means 
and performing work to secure volunteers, and in 
supporting the families of those who were in the ser- 
vice. He did more than any other one man to raise 
and organize the many companies which left Centre 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



County, and finally, almost by his unaided exertions 
raised a fidl company, and was elected its captain, and 
upon its arrival at Camp Curtin, in Harrisbiirg-, was 
assigned as Company " F" to the 23d regiment of 
Pennsylvania Militia, commanded by Col. Geo. B. 
Weistling. Although far beyond the age when men 
are relieved from military duty, and being unfit by 
education, habits and the state of his health, for the 
hardships of a campaign, he accepted the responsi- 
bility, went with his company to the field and served 
faithfiilly until his place could be filled by a younger 
man. 

Mr. M'Allister never held many public offices. 
Ciovernor l^igler, when a vacancy occurred in the 
P^ourth Judicial District, desired to appoint him to 
the Presidency of the Common Pleas, and asked his 
Iriends to grant his name, and Governor Curtin 
twice formally offered him comniissions as President 
judge which he declined. 

Alter the close of the war, he was appointed by the 
Governor one of the Commissioners to investigate, 
settle and adjust the claims of citizens of the border 
counties for losses sustained l)y the war. This ardu- 
ous and responsible dut}' he performed in a manner 
highly satisfactory to the State officials, as well as to 
the people immediately interested. At the last Re- 
publican .State Convention, he was selected as one of 



HON. HUGH NELSON A'PALLISTER. 71 

the toLirU'cn deleo-ates at lar^e to the Convention to 
reform the State Constitution. The nomination of 
the deleoates at large by either party was, under the 
provisions of the act calHng' the convention, equiva- 
lent to an election. He at once commenced a thor- 
ough preparation for the duties thus devolved ujoon 
him. He procured all works on Constitutional l.aw, 
the proceedings of Constitutional Conventions, the 
various State Constitutions now in force, or which 
had been proposed, and all other publications bearing 
upon the subject within the reach of any private citi- 
zen, and devoted months of incessant study and labor 
to master their contents. When the convention 
assembled in Harrisburg, last November, probably 
no single member was so thoroughly prepared as he 
to enter upon an intelligent discharge of the labors 
for which they were convened. He was appointed 
chairman of the important committee on " vSuffrage, 
Election and Representation," and a member of the 
committee on "Railroads and Canals." He entered 
upon his work with the energy and zeal which ever 
characterized him. Unfortunately he did not limit 
his labor by his physical capacity to endure it, but by 
his desire for the permanent good of his native State. 
Towards the close of winter, his strength gave way 
under incessant toil, and he was compelled by his 
physician to return home for rest. He remained at 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



home lour or live weeks, durin^' which time he im- 
proved in strength. Three weeks before his death, 
actuated by an intense desire to take part in the im- 
portant discussions then going on in the Convention, 
and by his improved health, he went back to Phila- 
delphia, and at once engaged arduously in the labor 
of the Convention. He made several important 
speeches upon questions pending before that body. 
He had over estimated his strength, for his intense 
labor brought on the disease which, in a few days, 
terminated his earthly career. Literally he offered 
himself a sacrifice upon the altar of his Common- 
wealth. He sacrificed his life in his effort to protect 
the people from the corruptions of the times, and the 
evils of misgovernment. The delegates at large, 
elected upon the ticket with him, will select a suc- 
cessor, but they cannot fill his place. 

As a citizen Mr. M'AUister was always enterprising, 
public spirited and patriotic. He took the lead in 
every enterprise designed to promote the pu])lic 
eood. He labored hard and contributed liberally lor 
all such purposes. This he did, not in a spirit ot 
speculation to promote his own good, but to benefit 
the people. He was one of die projectors, the con- 
stant friends and liberal supporters of the Agricul- 
tural College of Pennsylvania. He kept the County 
Agricultural Society in existence for years almost 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 73 

unaided. He was the friend and supporter of the 
Common Schools, Academies, and Seminaries, as well 
as Sunday Schools. For many years he was the 
recognized head of the organizations in the county 
for the promotion of temperance. As a neighbor he 
was ever considerate, kind, obliging and liberal. As 
a man he was just, upright and inflexibly honest. He 
was not honest from policy, but from an innate love 
of right and an intense hatred of everything wrong. 
As a husband and father he was most kind, gentle 
and affectionate. As a Christian he was sincere, 
faithful and most exemplary. For a long time he 
was not only a member but an Elder in the Presby- 
terian Church of Bellefonte, and took an active part 
in the labors of the sessions, presbyteries, synods and 
gfeneral assemblies. It would take a volume to con- 
tain an enumeration of his virtues and his labors, and 
in this brief notice we shall attempt no further to 
detail what all who had the benefit of his acquaintance 
knew so well. He was a man with no vices, and as 
few of the imperfections incident to human nature as 
is ever found in our race. 

Mr. M'Allister was twice married — first to Hen- 
rietta Ashman Orbison, of Huntingdon, Pa., by whom 
he had seven children, four of whom died in infancy, 
and one, Ellen E., a lovely daughter, died in 1866, at 

the age of twenty. Two daughters, Mary A., the 
10 



7 4 OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 

wife of Gen. James A. Beaver, and Sarah B., wife of 
Dr. Thomas R. Hays, both of Bellefonte, survive 
their father. The first Mrs. M'AlHster died April 
I 2th, 1857, and on September 12th, 1859, Mr. M'Al- 
Hster married Margaret Hamilton, of Harrisburg, a 
granddaughter of Captain John Hamilton, under 
whom his grandfather served in the revolution, and 
daughter of Hugh Hamilton. By this second mar- 
riaofe Mr. M'Allister had no children. He leaves his 
widow to mourn her irreparable loss. 

It will doubtless be generations before another citi- 
zen will die whose loss will be so deeply and univer- 
sally felt, and whose place in public and private 
stations it will be so impossible to fill. 



AT HOME. 



- 



At a meeting of the members of the Bar of Hunt- 
ingdon, Clearfield, Clinton and Centre Counties, held 
in the Court House, in Bellefonte, on Thursday, May 
8th, 1873, the following proceedings were had: 

The Hon. Charles A. Mayer, President Judge of 
the Twenty-fifth Judicial District, having been called 
to the chair, stated the object of the meeting, when 

Hon. Samuel Linn, formerly President Judge of 
this Judicial District, but now of the Lycoming County 
Bar, on behalf of the Committee previously appointed, 
offered the following resolutions, which were unani- 
mously adopted : 

I. Resolved, That we have learned with feelings of profound sor- 
row of the death of Hon. H. N. M'Allister, who for a period of 
nearly forty years stood in the front rank of the legal profession, 
not only in this and the neighboring Judicial Districts, but who 
by his learning, his industry and integrity, has acquired throughout 
the entire State a high and enviable reputation as a lawyer of 
eminent ability ; and who, by his liberality, his enterprising spirit, 
his devoted patriotism, his steady and earnest desire to be foremost 
in every good work whether pertaining to religion, morality, edu- 
cation or patriotism, by his open hearted benevolence and his 
unswerving devotion to duty, and to the advancement and promo 
tion of whatever he regarded as right, has won the unbounded 
esteem, admiration and confidence of the entire community ; and 
who, by reason of intense anxiety to perform his whole duty as a 



76 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

member of the Constitutional Convention regardless of the decline 
of his physical strength, fell at his post a martyr to that high 
sense of duty which has been the guiding star of his life. 

2. Resolved, That as members of the legal profession, we fully 
appreciate the irreparable loss that our membership has sustained 
by the decease of one of our number to whom we have been 
accustomed to look for wise and prudent counsel and stood 
amongst us as an acknowledged leader ; one whom we had learned 
and been accustomed to admire and esteem for his many estim- 
able qualities, for his profound learning, his kindness toward the 
younger members of the profession, his sterling honesty and integ- 
rity, his benevolence and hospitality, his fidelity to his clients, 
and his untiring devotion to the faithful execution of every trust 
committed to his care. 

3. Resolved, That his death will be deeply lamented by all whose 
privilege it was to know him; by the church of which he was an 
officer and exemplary member, and to the interest of which much 
of his time, his zeal and his worldly substance were freely offered; 
by all those who sympathized with him in his efforts for the educa- 
tion of young men and fitting them for spheres of usefulness; by 
the associations organized for the promotion of religion and 
moral reform ; by the poor, who shared largely in his bounty ; 
by the friends of public improvement ; by all, both young and 
old, who resorted to him for counsel and advice ; by a sorrowing 
community who feel and know that a great and a good man has 
been called to his reward ; but most of all by his own family circle 
who best knew his virtues and his worth, and were the constant 
recipients of his favor and his love. 

4. Resolved, That the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania has, 
by his death, suffered the loss of its best, truest friend, and patron, 
who devoted to its permanent foundation and ultimate success the 
best and the most disinterested energies of his life, and to whose 
efforts the institution owes its present prosperity and its bright 
prospects of future success. 

5. Resolved, That we will attend his funeral in a body, and will 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 77 

wear the usual emblem of mourning for his departure and respect 
for his memory. 

6. Resolved, That we sympathize with his family in their sorrow, 
and that A. O. Furst be a committee to convey to his widow and 
children our expression of sincere condolence and to present to 
them a copy of these resolutions. 

7. Resolved, That Hon. James McManus is appointed and re- 
quested to present the foregoing resolution to the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of Centre County at the next term thereof, and to move 
the said court that the same be transcribed and entered at large 
upon the record of the court. 

SAML. LINN, Chairman, 
A. G. CURTIN, 
JNO. H. ORVIS, 
ED. BLAiN CHARD, 
A. O. FURST. 

Hon. Samuel Linn then addressed the assemblage 
as follows: — Mr. President: The occasion that has 
called us together to-day is fraught with sorrow ; 
but in the theme presented for contemplation and 
remark we find we can give free expression of our 
grief There is here, sir, no temptation to drag out 
from retirement any delinquency that may be polished 
over when clothed in the garb of virtue ; no mystery 
to be passed by in painful silence, or covered by the 
mantle of charity. No, these things have no pre- 
sence or place here. The theme here, to-day, is upon 
the record of a long, virtuous, useful and well spent 
life; and the living of that life fills us with pride that 
such a man lived and had his being among us. We 



78 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

are tempted, sir, because he was one of us, to appro- 
priate to ourselves some of the honor which belonged 
to him alone, because he was our associate and our 
friend ; a friend who has been called to his reward by 
a summons which no mortal may disobey, and which 
no mortal can disregard. 

Of his early life, I am not here to speak, for I could 
give no just account of it. We are here, sir, to deal 
with him as a man, as a lawyer, as a citizen, as a 
neighbor, and in all these characters we knew him 
well. He first came to the bar, if my recollection is 
correct, in the year 1835, ^"<^ was admitted to the 
bar of this county. Of the early years of his prac- 
tice, I know but little from observation, for I had not 
then entered upon the pursuits that belong to mature 
life ; but in his after years I knew him well, and knew 
him to appreciate and esteem him. He was a man 
anywhere and always devoted to duty. What his 
hand found to do he did it with his might ; and his 
sense of duty, as stated in the resolutions, was the 
guiding star of his life. He knew no other motive; 
and no matter what obstacles might be found in his 
path to deter, he put them all aside, and pressed for- 
ward to the completion of what he felt to be his duty. 

As a lawyer he was profound, learned in the sci- 
ence of his profession; not bound down by the pre- 
cedents, for he well knew the elementary principles 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 79 

of the profession which he practiced, and which ena- 
bled him to arrive at the proper conclusion of any 
question he undertook to examine and determine. 
We all know his position at the bar, and with what 
success he practiced here for a long series of years; 
and if there was any necessity for further evidence, 
the records to be found in the vaults of this house 
would attest to us of his entire devotion to the inter- 
ests of his profession. As a citizen he was present 
in every good work. What he undertook to do, he 
did well. He never engaged in anything and did a 
part; what he attempted he finished, and finished it 

well. 

As a member of the church to which he belonged, 
he was zealous, pious, faithful, liberal; in all respects 
he acted his part well. As a citizen he was benevo- 
lent, kind, and eminently hospitable. His doors were 
always open. His table was free; and if any of the 
poor around us were here to speak, they would tell 
of many deeds of benevolence wherein the right 
hand of the deceased was never allowed to know 
what the left hand did, 

I could speak of many of the virtues of the de- 
parted in all the departments of life ; for in every 
department he acted his part well and faithfully. He 
was kind to the younger members of the bar; ever 
ready to relieve them of the embarrassments thrown 



8 o OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 

in their way, of which there are so many to the 
younger members of the profession. And how many 
of them seek advice in this wise, which they can only 
learn by inquiring of their elder brethren. No 
matter what the business before him, or how press- 
ing, it would be temporarily set aside that he might 
eive counsel to those who needed it. He lived to 
see the advancement of many of these members of 
his profession. 

He was faithful to the court; and I believe he 
never stated as a principle in law that which he did 
not believe to be well sustained by authority; for he 
never argued a case without examining it thoroughly, 
and he never attempted to speak upon a subject 
without having given it full attention and much study. 

He was a thorough lawyer, as his success at home 
and in the supreme courts testify. We all know how 
diligent he was in the practice of his profession. He 
came fully up to the definition of duty given by Lord 
Brougham, in his famous speech relative to the duty 
of counsel to his client: "that an advocate in the dis- 
charge of that duty should know but one man in all the 
world, and that man his client." He went straight 
forward in the discharge of that duty, looking neither 
to the riorht nor to the left. No matter how much 

o 

labor and inconvenience, no matter what trouble, he 
went throuo-h it all to save his client. He served 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 8i 

them honestly. Of his large practice I shall not 
speak. I do not think it necessary to call to recollec- 
tion that which is so well known to every person in 
this vicinity. 

He has gone, sir, to his God. Of those who were 
members of the bar when he was admitted to mem- 
bership, I believe but four remain. All the others 
have been gathered to their reward. To-day their 
remains are resting in the tomb, their graves covered 
with the green sward and the wild growing vine. 
Now he has gone to his reward. To say he was a 
perfect man I will not undertake. No mortal was 
ever perfect. He had his weaknesses and defects ; but 
they never descended to the degree of moral delin- 
quency. Neither did immorality ever belong to his 
character. He was upright, virtuous, honest, learned 
and intelligent; and well for us, Mr. President, if, 
when we are called to yield up our accounts and to 
answer to the summons which sooner or later awaits 
us all, we may find in the record of our lives as few 
imperfections as did he. We behold his imperfec- 
tions with his great virtues as we do the spots on the 
sun. They are visible because of the height of that 
luminary. So with him; but with men less virtuous, 
less learned, and with lower attainments, these things 
would not have been noticed. Because he was great, 

good, eminent, and virtuous; because he was a man 
11 



■ 



8 2 OBITUAR Y A D DRESSES. 

of eminent piety, these little defects of character 
shone out in him when they would have been invisi- 
ble in others. 

There are those here who knew him better than I 
did, although I stood beside him at the bar, and was 
engaged in the profession long enough to know he 
was the kind of a man I have described. Others 
more intimate with him, who are present here, can 
better express his admirable qualities than I can; but 
to no man will I yield the appreciation of character 
that I hold to-day in memory of our departed friend. 
Now, may we say of him, in view of his life, in view 
of his virtues, and in view of the manner in which he 
discharged every duty belonging to him, "Well done, 
ofood and faithful servant." 

Ex-Gov. Andrew G. Curtin, as Chairman of the 
Committee of the Constitutional Convention, said: — 
Mr. President: I think it very kind in the members 
of the bar to select me to second the resolutions 
which have just been read, and which so faithfully 
and truly portray the character of the cidzen we have 
lost; for it is many years since circumstances sep- 
arated me from the fellowship of the members of this 
bar, with whom I enjoyed so long such intimate and 
pleasant relations. 

The death of this man causes me to think of the 



HON. HUGH NELSON M'^ALLISTER. 83 

period of time when he came to the bar; and to re- 
member that, save and except the venerable gentle- 
man who sits upon your right (referring to Hon. 
James McManus), the members of the bar, in prac- 
tice in Centre County when Mr. M'Allister com- 
menced his professional life, are all dead. Then that 
kind, hospitable, and just man, so genial in his nature, 
so rigid in his integrity. Judge Thomas Burnside, was 
upon the bench. That learned lawyer, William W. 
Potter, was then the leading advocate of this and the 
surrounding counties; and that example of learning 
and purity which attracted to him by common consent 
the title of "honest," was in practice, John Blanchard, a 
little the junior of Potter; his equal in learning in all 
respects, to him I was attached, as I have rarely been 
to any man living or dead, for his just, useful and pure 
life. The genial, delightful companion, learned and 
eloquent advocate, Bond Valentine, was then at the 
bar. The gifted Petriken, who died so early in his 
life, was then living. James Burnside was then In 
full practice, and James T. Hale, both of whom had the 
honor of a seat on the judicial bench, and discharged 
their duties of a private or public character with a 
measure of ability and integrity which attracted to 
them so much of the affection and confidence of this 
community. One by one they have gone. And now 
another is added to the list of the dead, and our 



- 



84 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

memories are charged with the departure of one 
more bright and shining Hght of this bar. More than 
all that, more than an admiration of the legal learn- 
ing, or the strifes and antagonisms which follow the 
professional life, we hold in our memories their char- 
acters as citizens of the community, and we measure 
to them our gratitude by the good they did during 
their lives, 

I know full well that Mr. M'Allister never had 
those attractive, magnetic qualities which makes a 
man what is termed popular. He never did — it was 
not in his nature to condescend to the arts by which 
men too often attain to high official position, or who 
become popular in the political acceptation of that 
term; and yet I doubt much whether we could have 
stood over the grave of one citizen of Centre County 
who would be so universally mourned, and whose 
JOSS would be more severely felt. It is not the bar 
alone that sustains this loss. The society in which 
this man moved; the people to whom he gave an 
example of integrity and virtue; the community that 
surrounded him, has received a wound that is bleed- 
ing to-day, and throughout all this region of Pennsyl- 
vania there will be sincere mourning, because a useful 
citizen and a good man has died. 

Mr. M'Allister carried into the convention to reform 
the Constitution of the State the same indomitable 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 85 

energy, the same zeal and diligent labor, which wasted 
his life while he was engaged in the discharge of his 
professional duties at home. He took to that body 
a sincere conviction of the great trust given to him 
by the people of this Commonwealth ; and while there 
devoted himself to the task assigned him with such 
assiduity as to surprise all his colleagues who were 
not acquainted with his earnest nature ; for they had 
never known a man like him — a man with such devo- 
tion, zeal and anxiety. He worked at night when 
other men slept. His convictions of duty were 
intensified by the zeal of his nature, and in pursuit of 
these convictions he deliberately formed and carried 
to the Convention, worked out the remnant of his 
life, already so far reduced by ill health and over- 
work. 

I saw my friend and neighbor often during his last 
illness. Indeed for a time I was the only person who 
could see him, except the members of his family, who 
had gathered around him with so much solicitude and 
care. Every day I went to the Convention I was 
called upon to answer numberless and anxious ques- 
tions by men who never saw him before he took his 
seat in that body. To know him was to respect and 
admire him ; but if they did not know him personally, 
his colleagues soon learned to appreciate his integrity^ 
and the force and ability with which he maintained his 



86 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

settled opinions, and so great was his anxiety to effect 
reform in the orcjanic law of the State, and discharge 
this public trust with fidelity, that when his mind 
wandered, and the grim monster was feeling for his 
heart-strinors, his thoucrhts were in the Convention, 
where he expected not to make a reputation, but to 
do good. I am glad to say to his friends and neigh- 
bors in this place, that his last office was discharged 
with the same fidelity to duty, that he discharged all 
his trusts through life ; and when death finally closed 
the scene, we sent your neighbor back, to be put in 
the ground in Bellefonte, under the evergreen trees 
of our beautiful cemetery, where the winds of Heaven 
will sigh his requiem, as they will, my friends and 
neighbors, yours and mine before long. 

To the members of this bar he leaves a priceless 
legacy in his example. Let them take the life of this 
man and imitate his discharge of professional duty. 
For us who survive him in this village and county, let 
us take his blameless life, his integrity and labor, as 
an example, and let us so walk in our life, that when 
we come to die and be carried to our final resting 
place, our friends and neighbors can truly say, as 
is said in those resolutions, that we led a life worthy 
of the imitation of those who come after us. 

I said what I deemed proper and true of Mr. 
M'Allister in the Convention when fitting- honors 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 87 



were paid his memory in that body, and am glad to 
say that the delegates, upon all of whom he has made 
so favorable an impression, received what was said 
with marked approbation. They believed me when I 
told them that Mr. M'Allister was virtuous, honest 
and religious. I am glad I bore such testimony to his 
character, for I knew well that in the words I spoke I 
uttered the sentiment of the hearts of his neighbors 
fresh and warm, and that all who knew him would 
feel that all that was said of him was true. 

I cannot trust myself to say more. My venerable 
friend, (turning to Mr. McManus,) we will soon be 
gone, and then new and younger men will take our 
places. We are the last of that body of men who 
were at the bar when Mr. M'Allister first made his 
appearance in our courts, and who since has illumin- 
ated his profession of this and surrounding counties. 
To the dead, farewell. Let us who remain imitate 
his noble example. 

Hon. John Scott, United States Senator, repre- 
senting the bar of Huntingdon County, said: — Mr. 
President: In rising in behalf of the members of the 
bar of Huntingdon County to second the resoludons 
which have been read, I feel that I can but repeat the 
sendments which have already been expressed by 
those who lived nearer, and knew better, that member 



88 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

of the bar whose death we are here to mourn, and to 
whose memory we are here to pay respect. 

The iron tongue of time, sir, which has just sounded 
out its voice upon the air reminds as how rapidly 
the fleeting hours have gone since first we met 
him, and how rapidly we, too, are going to that 
bourne to which he has gone, and to which we are 
all tending. 

Coming to the bar in 1846, I met Mr. M'Allister in 
full and successful practice; a practice which he re- 
tained so lonof as he continued to visit the courts of 
Huntingdon County — some fifteen or sixteen years. 
Often his colleague and often his adversary, I had 
ample opportunity of studying and knowing him as a 
lawyer ; and, sir, no man could meet him, no man 
could be associated with him, no man could contend 
against him, without feeling that he was contending 
against the power of conscience and the truth; for 
whatever Hueh N. M'Allister uttered came from a 
mind and was warmed by a heart which believed 
everything he uttered to be the truth. An intensity 
of devotion characterized him, which perhaps we 
could not with truth attribute to any other member 
of the bar with whom we have been associated. 
Certainly it has never been my lot to be associated 
with any one who became so entirely absorbed in de- 
votion to what he believed to be duty. This, sir, was 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 



not only so at the bar, but it was so in every relation 
of life into which his activity carried him. 

I remember well, sir, when he came from this town 
in the trying year of 1862, in response to the call 
which Gov, Curtin issued to the people of Pennsyl- 
vania; just at the time our Southern border was 
threatened, and a few days prior to the battle of An- 
tietam. Serving as an assistant to Adjutant-General 
Russell, I was engaged in the duty of receiving and 
quartering troops, and forming them into regiments 
after they arrived, so that they might be despatched 
to the Southern border. When Mr. M'Allister came 
there I met him. Within one hour after his company 
had been assigned to its quarters I observed him 
traveling from the quartermaster's department to the 
camp, laden with equipments necessary for his com- 
pany, carrying the articles on his back. In less than 
half an hour afterwards, I found him seated at his 
quarters, with an open book before him, as deeply 
absorbed in the study of military tactics as though the 
army was to be his abiding place for life. 

I not only met him at the bar, but in other avoca- 
tions of civil life, I remember how he was tried by 
the prejudice of the public, which would not receive 
the great enterprise in which he was engaged with 
favor; that great enterprise, the Agricultural College 

of Pennsylvania, which leaves upon your soil a monu- 
12 



90 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

ment to his memory, and one that should make that 
memory fragrant to every citizen of the Common- 
wealth. 

I met him also in another sphere where he ex- 
hibited the truth of the great intellectual and mental 
superiority which made him leader of the bar. It 
enabled him also to illustrate that humble faith which 
led him to be a consistent follower of the meek and 
lowly Saviour of men ; and there, too, this same con- 
suming zeal was his characteristic. I feel, sir, that 
this is a subject upon which I cannot enlarge, and I 
need not enlarge in this presence. I feel, sir, that 
few words are needed when we come to pay the 
last tribute of respect in this community, and in this 
atmosphere, to this man. When it was intimated to 
me, perhaps thirty-six hours ago, that I would be ex- 
pected to say a few words, as a representative of the 
bar of Huntingdon, I sat down in the few minutes 
that I could snatch from other engagements to see 
whether I could sketch his character in a few words 
that would be only fitting upon this occasion. Let 
me, after apologizing for doing so, read what I hastily 
penned, but what I believe to be true. 

"Mr. Chairman: In assembling to pay our last 
tribute of respect to the memory of Hugh Nelson 
M'Allister, we all feel that we come to stand around 
the grave of no ordinary man. Those of us who have 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 91 

associated with him in the toils, the conflicts, the tri- 
umphs, and the defeats which make up so much of a 
busy lawyer's life, soon learned and understood the 
intensity of his nature. Earnest thought and earnest 
work were the employments of his honorable and 
useful life. They were elements so marked in his 
character, that while they gave him much of the 
prominence he attained in the busy sphere in which 
he acted in life, they also doubtless had much to do 
in bringing that life to its untimely end. They be- 
tokened with him 

*' 'A fiery soul which, working out its way, 
Fretted the pigmy body to decay.' 

"Devoted to a single pursuit, and placed where his 
actions would have told upon public affairs, rather 
than private interests, his untiring industry and his 
mental vigor would have made a man of commanding 
influence among any people and in any station, He 
was the less a great man, because he sought not to live 
in the gaze of the world, or to place his name upon the 
fleeting breath of fame. He was great in the dis- 
charge of duty; duty as he understood it — present 
duty regardless of personal consequences; and at the 
bars of our county courts he discharged it with an 
ability, a fidelity, a fervor of zeal, a high integrity 
which upon other fields would have made him a hero 



92 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



in arms, a great leader in the path of science, a 
Luther leading a reform, or a martyr dying for the 
right. 

"Whether examining his client's case, advocating 
it before the tribunals of justice; whether advocating 
the interests of his County or State, or that pursuit 
to which he was so much devoted ; whether seeking 
to bringr comfort to the homes of the devoted minis- 
ters who have given their lives to the service of his 
and their master ; whether engaged in the relief of 
those in penury ; whether in the Convention framing 
the organic law of the State ; wherever he was, we 
found him to be that man of whom, coming now to 
stand before his open grave, we can truly say he 
fulfilled the scriptural injunction — he was ' diligent in 
business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' Peace, 
sir, and honor to his memory." 

Cline G. Furst, Esq., of the Clinton County bar, 
said : — Mr. President : In rising on the part of the 
Clinton County bar to second these resolutions, these 
most fitting resolutions, I feel more forcibly than ever 
I did in my life that, that clergyman was eloquent 
indeed who, laying his hand on the forehead of his 
dead monarch, said : " God alone is great." I feel 
that he was as truthful as eloquent. 

Mr. M'Allister was my friend. I was his friend 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 93 

and I loved him. I became acquainted with him in 
August, 1 85 1, when I entered his office, and I was a 
student therein for two years. He was my preceptor. 
He practiced his profession in CHnton County, from 
the formation thereof till 1866, and what Judge or 
lawyer has seen him rise in court and make a state- 
ment, that did not feel that he believed every word 
he uttered. And as has been well said here, when he 
stated the law to be this, or boldly declared it to be 
that, no one has believed he was stating as law what 
he thought was not law. No man can call to mind 
in a long contested case, in any case, and I care not 
how much preparation attended it, how much was 
involved, or that it finally ended by compromise, that 
Mr. M'AUister in anything, deviated from the strictest 
truth. It was never thought he could be tempted to 
violate his word. Who has heard him argue a case 
in court that did not say he had a logical mind? 
You could not hear his statement of the law, and 
attend on his argument of his case, without declaring 
that he was a man of great legal knowledge and of 
deep research. 

To state that he was a most profound lawyer 
would be but to assert what we all well know. 

In his decease the bar of this country and the bar 
of the Commonwealth has sustained a great loss. 
Every honorable act of the lawyer, and his fame, as 



94 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

well as every particular virtue attaching to the man, 
becomes the common patrimony of the bar — the bar's 
inheritance. 

I well remember some instructions he gave me. 
He told me he never read light literature — novels, 
things forgotten as soon as read. In reference to 
reading law, he stated to me, it was not the number 
of books read but how I read. Better to read few 
books, and read them well ; but above all thingfs 
possess yourself of the principles of the common law, 
and when this you have done you will stand upon 
ground behind which no man can go; you will occupy 
a position from which you cannot be dislodged. 

Again, in speaking of the honesty and veracity 
which should always accompany the dealings of man 
with his fellow man, (a thousand recollections now 
crowd upon me in relation to this), he said, "A man 
is not always required to speak when it is his interest 
to remain silent ; but if he does speak he is bound to 
speak the truth." 

No eulogium I could pronounce upon him would 
add to his memory. His fame is secure. He was 
not ambitious to hold office, or for anything that he 
might appear great before the world ; but as has 
been said of another, he was ambitious rather that 
God might pronounce him good. If I were to inquire 
after what was his motto, by what rule was he 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 95 

governed — looking over his life from the time I first 
knew him, now over twenty-one years, I would plainly 
see that to be, rather than seem to be, was the inspira- 
tion by which he was governed. I would write for 
his motto : — Esse qiiam videri. 

When you look upon his character as a man, as a 
citizen, as a lawyer, or in any capacity, you behold a 
good m.an ; for no one can recall any moral delin- 
quency in him, and when you give to him his most 
exemplary Christian character, extending through a 
long series of years, it is plainly seen, and we all 
believe that when Mr. M'Allister descended to his 
grave a good man ascended to God. 

Hon. George R. Barrett, of the Clearfield County 
bar, said: — Mr. President: I esteem it a great privi- 
lege to be here on this occasion to mingle my own 
individual sorrow with those who feel most sorrowful 
here over this great bereavement. It Is a still greater 
privilege to represent the Clearfield bar, and to second 
the resolutions which have already been read. When 
the lightning flashing over the wires brought to us in 
Clearfield the intelligence of Mr. M'Allister s death, 
not only his brethren there in the legal profession, 
but all who knew him, felt to mourn and to sorrow ; 
although he had seldom or never been there to 
mingle with the bar at their homes, yet, they knew 



9 6 OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 



him there and in other places. They knew enough 
of him to esteem him as a man, and to admire his 
character and reputation when living, and they felt it 
would be a privilege to mingle their sorrow with his 
most intimate friends. 

In Cole's great picture of the Journey of Life, he 
divided that great journey into four periods — youth, i 
manhood, middle age, and the decline of life. It was 
my privilege to meet, and to associate with, and to 
know the deceased well and intimately during man- 
hood, middle age and in his declining years. I knew 
him only as his friends here knew him. I knew him 
only to know that he had emerged from youth, and 
entered upon manhood, to honor the period he had 
left behind ; and when in a few years the wheel of 
time had rolled him on, and he had left that period in 
the history of his life to enter upon middle age, it was 
only to leave the past in the history of his life the 
better of his having lived in it. So through all that 
great journey until he had moved down in the declin- 
ing years to his last moments. 

I say it to-day, sincerely, it would have done my 
heart good to have had the privilege of our much 
esteemed friend, Governor Curtin, to have watched 
around him in his last moments ; to have seen his 
eyes closed in death ; to have witnessed the expira- 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 97 

tion of that long, useful and pious life. He has made 
the journey. He has gone to his home. 

We can class the duties of life under two general 
heads : 

First, that we should all so live as to leave the 
world the better for our having lived in it. 

Secondly, we should so live that when we approach 
the other world, to enter upon the unending eternity, 
our happiness may be vouchsafed there. 

Under these two heads we may sum up the whole 
of life ; the object of living, the privilege of death. 
Who here cannot bear honest, sincere, and heartfelt 
testimony, to-day, to the fact that our deceased friend 
fulfilled both these missions of his life? That when 
he left the world he left it better for his having been 
In It, and who doubts that he has gone to meet a 
happy resurrection ? He has fulfilled his mission on 
earth, and why should we mourn over him here ? 
Why should we sob over his departure? His time 
had come. His work was done; he had fulfilled his 
mission; and God, in his mercy, called the deceased 
in his declining years to his reward. 

Mr. President, when we have followed his remains 
to-day to their final resting place, when we have seen 
him interred, when we have known that his immortal 
spirit has winged its way to heaven, when we have 
dropped the last tears of sorrow upon his newly made 

13 



98 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

grave; if we, on retiring, have promised that our Hves 
shall be spent as was the life of Mr. M'Allister ; de- 
termined that our earthly cause shall be patterned 
after his, that we, too, may exemplify these two great 
truths of his life, and have the bright prospects of the 
immortal crown and a happy eternity, we will have 
performed our duty. 

The blanks in the sixth and seventh resolutions 
were then filled, when, on motion of Mr. Orvis, the 
body adjourned to reconvene at the late residence of 
the deceased, at 2 o'clock, p. m., to attend the funeral 
in a body. 



FUNERAL OF HUGH NELSON M'ALLISTER, 

BELLEFONTE, PA., THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1873. 
DISCOURSE BY REV. W^. T. WYLIE. 



Mr. WvLiE took for his text the second chapter of 
the second book of Kings, and proceeded as follows: 

This word of God is a wonderful book in its adapt- 
ation to the children of men under all possible cir- 
cumstances in which they can be placed. It is a book 
which must not merely be held in the hand, but 
treasured in the heart. I feel a peculiar sense of 
satisfaction as I hold in my hand what has just been 
given to me, a book which is filled with the notes and 
jottings of him whose hand is now palsied by death — 
his own study Bible — a Bible such as should be, my 
dear friends, in the hands of every one of us. 

In the second chapter of second Kings we have the 
account of Elijah taken up to Heaven: 

"And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah 
into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from 
Gilgal. 

"And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



Lord hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said utiio him, As the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So 
they went down to Beth-el. 

"And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth 
to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will 
take away thy master from thy head to-day ? And he said, Yeq, 
I know /// hold ye your peace. 

"And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee ; 
for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said. As the Lord 
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came 
to Jericho. 

"And the sons of the prophets that were dX Jericho came' to 
Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take 
away thy master from thy head to-day ? And he answered. Yea, 
I know /// hold ye your peace. 

"And Elijah said unto him. Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the 
Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And hj said, As the Lord liveth, 
and as thy^soul liveth, 1 will not leave thee. And they two went 
on. 

"And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to 
view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. 

"And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and 
smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so 
that they two went over on dry ground. 

"And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah 
said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken 
away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double por- 
tion of thy spirit be upon me. 

"And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if 
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; 
but if not, it shall not be so. 

"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that 
behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and 
parted them both asunder ] and Elijah went up by a whirlwind 
into heaven. 

" And^ Elisha saw //, and he cried. My father, my father, the 
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. loi 

more ; and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two 
pieces. 

" He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and 
went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan ; 

"And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote 
the waters, and said, Where /> the Lord God of Elijah? And 
when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and 
thither : and Elisha went over." 

And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at 
Jericho saw him, tl.ey said. The spirit of Elijah doth rest on 
Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to 
the ground before him. 

In this exceedingly interesting and touching narra- 
tive, my dear friends, it seems to me that we have a 
full, instructive, and impressive lesson for the hour 
which has called us together to-day. One of the very 
first thoughts that comes out in this beautiful passage 
is, "how hard our parting with those we love." Is 
there one here who has not learned this in his own 
personal experience — in his own immediate family 
circle? Is there one here whose heart has not been 
touched with sorrow, and his eyes dimmed with tears, 
at one time or another ; if not thus borne the sadness 
and grief many times ? 

When we see the briorht sun shininof in the morn- 
ing it seems to us then all is joyous and hopeful ; no 
matter how long the day we look with sadness when 
the sun goes down. When life ends it is the sun- 
down of life. We say that one is dead if that one 



■- 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



has died in Jesus Christ, and at peace with the Lord 
God. We say he is dead when the angels of God 
sing and heaven is jubilant with joy over his entrance 
into that upper and better world. We have thus 
said in this bereavement ; but it behooves us to 
sorrow not as those who have no hope. 

How tenderly did Elisha cling to Elijah. He saw 
him at the last moment. He learned from him his 
last words of instruction. When Elijah asked, What 
he should do for him before he was taken away from 
him? Elisha's whole soul was wrapped up in the 
entreaty — "Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon 
me." So in the parting with those who are near and 
dear to us we, too, learn that God is ordering these 
things. This would be a strange world if death would 
never enter it. What would be the condition of this 
world if it were not for these experiences through 
which God is purifying, purging the hearts of men, 
preparing them for the better life ? A little tree 
may be taken out of the forest, and on account of the 
little space it occupied it will scarcely be missed; but 
when a great monarch is stricken in its immensity, 
how many there are to mourn, so great is the space 
which is left vacant. 

In this passage we have not only brought before us 
the fact of the hardness of parting, but we see, also, 
the Divine power that is given to the servant of God. 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 103 

We speak of death as a river, and it is commonly 
spoken of as the "Jordan of death." Here we find 
the servant of God who, about passing- to glory, 
stood upon the bank of the stream and with his pro- 
phetic mantle he smote the waters, and they were 
divided hither and thither so that he and his sole 
companion, that would remain with him, went over on 
dry ground. Here have we not the triumph of the 
Christian that overcometh? When the stream is 
deep and the waters are forbidding, and we stand on 
the brink, then, with the grace of God in our hearts, 
and with this wand of faith — this perfect mantle — we 
may smite the waters and divide them that we may 
go safely over. Elijah went over triumphantly to 
meet that which was to carry him gloriously from this 
world. As they went along the concern of Elijah is 
significant when conversing with his companion. 
When a child of God is to leave this world, and has 
the assurance of joy beyond, he still feels deeply for 
those who remain; for friends who are not ready to 
go and who cannot feel as the dying believer feels. 
He feels particularly anxious and solicitous in his 
separation from the dear ones. 

It is a consolation to the living when the departed 
one has passed up to God triumphantly — when he 
has passed through the valley and through the deep 
waters and entered upon his heavenly kingdom. It 



1 04 OBITUAR V ADDRESSES. 

is for those to be glad who remain. It teaches us 
not only to be submissive, but something better. It 
gives us that spirit of acquiescence, "Even so, Father, 
for it seemeth good in Thy sight." Not only does it 
give grace to say, "Though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou 
art with me;" but we catch a glimpse, by faith, of the 
saints in heaven — we see through the passage way 
through which the departed has gone to his rest. 

Then in this passage we see the sudden call. Elisha 
would cling to Elijah. He would not be forced or 
prevailed upon to go back, and Elisha said " As the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave 
thee." He clung to him step by step ; and when the 
sons of the prophets at Jericho asked him if he knew 
that to-day his master was to be taken from him, the 
reply came, "Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace." 
He knew that the separation would come better than 
any of them ; but when the call came, how sudden. 
All at once the chariot of fire and horses of fire swept 
down and parted them ; his master was caught up in 
the chariot and rode by a whirlwind to the glory 
above. He did not otq into darkness. A thousand 
years afterwards he stood with Jesus Christ upon the 
mount transfigured, and talking with Moses and with 
Jesus. When our friends and brethren in Jesus go 
away from this world, they do not go into blank 



■- 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 105 

nothingness, they go into blessed activity. How 
would it be of our brother if we thought of him as 
going into a state of inaction ? The servant of God 
has the assurance when he dies, "To-day shalt thou 
be with me in paradise." 

When death comes to us, no matter after how much 
sickness and weariness, it always finds us unexpect- 
edly — I do not say unprepared, for the Christian is 
always prepared to meet him by faith in Jesus Christ. 
No matter what has been the previous warning, when 
it comes it is like the chariot of fire and the horses of 
fire, sweeping down and calling away the one who 
has been preparing for this change. 

Then we have in this the realizing cry. As the 
prophet Elijah was caught up and disappeared, the 
whole soul of Elisha was poured out. He cried out 
and said : " My father, my father, the chariot of Israel 
and the horsemen thereof." In this cry two thoughts 
are brought before us ; and these two thoughts 
express, it seems to me, the thoughts to-day not of 
the immediate family only but of the entire com- 
munity ; and that feeling rolls over and beyond the 
State, for our brother had an influence and power 
not only at home but in the church, in the Common- 
wealth, and far from his home. The very first cry 
was expressive of bereavement — " My father ! my 

father !" The one we look to for instruction is " my 
14 



1 06 OBITUAR Y ADDRESSES. 



father." The one who cares for his family, his children 
and guides them, is " my father," What recollections 
cluster around the name " father." When he has 
grown old in years, we seek him for wisdom and 
counsel. What love, what wisdom the father shows. 
God has used this very name to give us a proper 
realization of the nearness of our relation with him. 
When God calls such away, it seems to me that the 
children left learn a meaning and significance in those 
words used in infancy that never appeared to them 
before. " Our Father, who art in Heaven." Now, when 
such a father is called from earth to Heaven, the 
bereaved and mourning children cannot say in the 
morning prayer again, " Our Father, who art in 
Heaven," without feeling that they are drawn by a 
new bond to that unseen and not unknown — to that 
glorious one who is our Creator, Preserver, Bene- 
factor, Lord, Redeemer. 

I dare not, my friends, trust myself to speak upon 
this subject of personal bereavement. I am unfitted 
by my own relations to this beloved man in the years 
I have been ministering as pastor of the church here, 
and in what I have learned in my intercourse with 
him in his Chaistian life and service. I do not 
believe many names could be stricken down in our 
community and our State whose removal would cause 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 107 



a more extended sense of bereavement in any com- 
munity in which they have dwelt. 

The words I have used are followed immediately 
by "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.'' 
Israel had been exposed to bitter and destructive 
foes. In years that had gone by the great protection 
of the nation was not its armed force ; it was not its 
chariots and horses brought up out of Egypt — Elijah 
was a host in himself. Does this not teach the im- 
portance of proper laws, not only to the State Con- 
stitutional Convention, but to members of the bar 
representing this and surrounding counties. The 
great want of our nation, to-day, is just such men as 
our departed brother. Of unquestioned and unflinch- 
ing integrity, with a firm manliness and a purpose to 
face wrong, he was determined to act with reference 
to the will and approval of God. We may well pray 
to-day that the spirit he has manifested in his rela- 
tions, both in private and public life, may be poured 
out in double portion upon our State and our whole 
land. Of his loss to the public we will not speak. 
We leave for others, who have been associated with 
him in public life, to speak of the public loss. Our 
whole town and this entire community feels we have 
lost one upon whom we have been leaning for strength 
and support. 

The most cheerful lesson in this most instructive 



-h 



I 



io8 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

passage is that which follows this cry: "My father, 
my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof" The mantle was not taken with him. The 
God who, by his grace, made this brother what he, 
was, is not dead. God lives and calls every one to 
come to him. O, Christian friends and brethren, is it 
not needful that every one of us should come to Him 
for full strength and grace, for full consecration to the 
work yet to be done? May I not say to those who 
have strength — may I not appeal to those who are not 
ready — you who so deeply feel the loss of this man, 
with all your respect, and affection, and love for him — 
will you not, to-day, seek that like him you may rest 
upon this Rock which nothing can move ? Will you 
not build upon this foundation which no storms of life 
can sweep away? 

Elisha did not sit down in idle sorrow. The dearest 
earthly friends must turn from solemn afflicting scenes 
as this, but not to wrap themselves up in their sor- 
rows. There is work to be done, and we must smite 
the waters and set out upon the journey over the 
land which still remains before us. Elisha set forth 
again upon his mortal mission, and the sons of the 
prophets observed him and recognized him as moving 
and working in the same spirit which characterized 
Elijah, his master. As he went along he came near 
a beautiful spring, and a whole city depended upon 



'- 



HON. HUGH NELSON MCALLISTER. 109 

the fountain. That city was losing its existence, and 
the ground around it was barren because the waters 
of the stream were not life-giving. He came and 
purified that fountain, and it flowed out again healed 
and giving life, joy and fruitfulness, O, ye who stand 
by the well springs of society, or the work to which 
God calls you, go from this solemn service, that with 
the mantle you may part these streams and purify 
these fountains and thus help to make society what 
God would have it to be. We trust the influence of 
our departed friend and brother may be still felt, as 
we were assured this morning by the representatives 
of his profession and the delegates of the Convention 
of which he was a member, and in devotion to the 
proper aims and results of which he poured out even 
life itself There are wrongs to be righted, and 
services to be rendered, and work to be done; and 
by this open coffin, to-day, I call upon each one of you 
to go forth looking to Him, the Almighty Father, for 
new grace, resolved that by His help and strength 
you will labor with new consecration in His service 
in the work which He gives each one in his place 
to do. 

The day before the death of our Christian brother 
his companion, we understand, asked him if he knew 
how ill he was ? He replied " O, yes." And the ques- 
tion was asked whether he trusted in Christ, and 



H- 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



confided in Him ? The answer was given in but two 
words, yet how worthy to be cherished — " Full assur- 
ance." Not because of what he had done, but because 
of what Christ had done. I never knew a man who 
so entirely realized that all his works were naught ; 
that the erace of God was to be mag-nified. Let us 
seek this full assurance that we may remember our 
Redeemer lives, and that He is just as ready to 
receive and sustain and bless as we are to be 
received and sustained and blessed by Him. Then 
having the full assurance that can come only to the 
fully confiding, trusting heart, that is devoted con- 
stantly to Christian living, we shall be prepared for 
death whenever and wherever it may come, as was 
our brother who has just gone before. 



OF BELLEFONTE. 

At a meeting- of the Session of the Presbyterian 
Church, held 17th May, 1873, the following- resolutions 
were adopted : 

Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God, in his All-wise yet to 
us inscrutable providence, to remove from our midst by death, 
our beloved brother, H. N. M'AUister, who, for ten years, so 
faithfully and well performed his duty as an Elder and Office 
Bearer in this Church, and who, by his mature wisdom, earnest 
zeal and devout Christian life, won the confidence, esteem, and 
love of every member of the Church with which he was connected : 

And whereas, In this sudden bereavement the Session has lost 
one of its most efficient members, one whose counsel was often 
sought and followed, whose heart never wearied in well doing ; 
whose faith was ever strong in God, who devoted much of his 
time, his talents, and his means in promoting the peace, the unity 
and prosperity of Christ's kingdom ; who, in the late r years of 
his life, rendered invaluable service to the church at large by the 
assistance which he gave in securing a scheme of Sustentation, by 
which the weaker congregations of our church might be supplied 
with pastors who would also be supported by a free and voluntary 
system of contribution : Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we bow humbly in submission to the will of our 
Heavenly Father, who has so suddenly taken from our number one 
whose work seemed yet unfinished ; who was wise in counsel, 
faithful in the discharge of duty, exemplary in his Christian life, 
ever ready and willing to go where duty called, devoted to the 
cause of Christ, and who, by his example, his faith and benevolence, 
did much to promote the interest of the church at home and in 
distant fields of missionary labor. 

Resolved, That as a Session we deeply lament the loss we have 
sustained in this sad bereavement. That we here record our deep 
sense of gratitude to God for the example of his life ; that we will 
ever bear in our hearts a warm and abiding appreciation for the 
faithful services of our departed brother, humbly trusting and 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



praying that through life his virtues and Christian character may 
lead and prompt us, who survive him, to a full and earnest dis- 
charge of every duty that God calls us to perform ; and that finally 
we may again be reunited with him in the mansions of the blest in 
Heaven, where sorrow and parting are never known. 

Resolved, That we convey to the family of our deceased brother 
our heartfelt sympathy, together with a copy of these resolutions ; 
that the same be published in the "Presbyterian" and "Evange- 
list," and also be recorded upon our Sessional minutes. 

W. T. WYLIE, Pastor, 
E. C. HUMES, 
A. O. FURST, 
JAMES HARRIS. 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF PENNA. 

At a special meeting of the Faculty of the Agricul- 
tural College of Pennsylvania the following resolu- 
tions were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, God, in his All-wise Providence, has removed by 
death Hon. H. N. M'AUister, who has, for more than eighteen 
years, labored as one of the Trustees of this Institution with a de- 
votion rarely equaled. Therefore, be it Resolved, 

1st. That the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania have expe- 
rienced in his death the loss of one who, by his zeal, his ungrudging 
sacrifice of time, money and effort in its behalf, his hopefulness in 
the dark hours of its history, and his influence in winning others 
to its support, has endeared his memory not only to its Faculty 
and Students, but also to the friends of practical education 
throughout the country. 

2d. That as a token of respect the Faculty attend the funeral 
ceremonies. 

3d. That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the family 

of the deceased, and also, that they be published in the Bellefonte 

papers. 

E. T. BURGAN, 

Secretary of Faculty. 



MAR 25 1907 



